


The Ties that Bind

by c0nsistentlyinc0nsistent



Series: Mumbo and Grian [1]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Aether AU, Grian is an angel from the Aether, Its just a mess, Multi, just dont ship real ppl, personas only, there's multiple ships you could interpret here, various other characters have different backgrounds and are from different dimensions, you interpret it however
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2020-11-22 08:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 74
Words: 58,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20871095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0nsistentlyinc0nsistent/pseuds/c0nsistentlyinc0nsistent
Summary: Previously titled "Not From Around Here" but now it has a much better name! Fits better with the story's focus too :)





	1. New discoveries

* * *

He emerged from the previous world into lands he had never seen before. 

It was rare that anyone ever knew how to get here, as it was much more complicated than it seems. The glowstone structure had brought him to the Aether, a mysterious realm in the sky, which some thought of as Heaven.

  
Xisuma stepped further from the portal and took in his surroundings. The soft grass on the floating island was a much lighter color, trees scattered around with different color leaves, some golden, others a light green.

The mobs around him were similar to the passive mobs found on the overworld, the only difference being their golden wings or their lighter colors that complimented the clouds in the sky, which took on a lavender color.

He marvelled at the beauty of this world around him, with its swaying trees and gentle, blue waterfalls that ripped through the lower clouds. He made numerous observations about the differences in the mobs, plants, and terrain around him compared to the overworld. He approached nearby creatures and studied them with his scanner, identifying their unique qualities and closely observing their behaviors.

  
During his exploration of the rather short-spanning lands around him, the hermit paused when he heard a shuffle in the grass nearby. Looking around, something caught his eye; a bit of white feathers sticking out from behind a tree.

Quietly, he moved closer and cautiously peered around the tree. There, he briefly made eye contact with another person, who he saw was dressed in a red sweater with slightly baggy blue pants, and he had blonde hair. 

However, this was only seen from a brief observation, as the man had fled through what Xisuma concluded to be teleportation, leaving a yellow glow behind in his place momentarily. He seemed to have not gone far, however, as Xisuma saw those same feathers sticking out from behind the far wall of a small, rustic-style house nearby. Once more, he slowly moved towards it.

  
"Hello?" He quietly called to the other, who flinched slightly. "I'm sorry if I startled you, I mean you no harm."

Hesitantly, the other poked his head out from behind the wall before fully moving away from it to face the curious hermit.

"What's your name?" Xisuma asked, using a gentle tone to show that he was friendly. Now having a better view, he came to the conclusion that the smaller man was an angel from the realm, judging by his wings and aura.

"My name..? Oh! G-grian," He answered nervously. 

Xisuma reached out his hand for the other to shake. "Xisuma. A pleasure to meet you, Grian," He said with a smile. 

Grian stared at the hand outstretched for a moment, then resolved to shake hands with the other, seeing as he did not appear to have any bad intentions—and certainly no white lab coat. 

"I'm here to study the Aether a bit. I hope you don't mind," Xisuma said.

Grian lightly shook his head. "No..no, I don't mind. I just never see people here usually. Then whenever I do I fear that it's someone who wants to capture me," He replied, still visibly nervous. 

This caught Xisuma's attention. "Might I ask why?" He asked politely. 

Grian glanced at him, then at the ground. He leaned back against the wall of the house and sighed.

"Have you noticed that you see no other angels here?" He asked. Xisuma looked around and shook his head. Sure enough, he saw no other angels. 

"That's because something terrible happened to them here," Grian said shakily. "These people in white lab coats came through and captured them all. Not me, though. I fought them off and hid. Everyone else was taken."

  
Xisuma's heart sank as he heard what happened to the other angels, even if there were no details. Gently, he placed a hand on Grian's shoulder, who flinched at the touch, but soon relaxed. 

"I'm so sorry to hear that. I promise you though, I have no intention to harm you or any of the creatures here," He assured the angel, wanting to earn his trust. He truly didn't want to hurt anyone or anything in this realm. 

"I...thank you," Grian mumbled. After a moment, he shook his head lightly and moved away from the wall. "Sorry, would you like to come inside..?" He asked, gesturing to the house behind him. Xisuma nodded, following the other as he lead him into the small, rustic house.

The two chatted for a while, Xisuma asking Grian about the Aether and its inhabitants. 

After a while, Xisuma had a thought. "Grian, do you ever get lonely here?" He asked. 

Grian looked at him curiously before glancing at a small crystal necklace laying on a nearby shelf. "Yeah, sometimes I do, actually," He said. "Why?" 

Xisuma smiled and stood up, offering his hand to the other.

"Tell me, how would you like to learn about Hermitcraft?"

* * *


	2. New Faces and Trouble Not-So-Far at Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian arrives at Hermitcraft, giving a nervous introduction. After a bit of exploration, he begins working on his first project in the new community. However, his plans are partially interrupted by unexpected trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adjusted this chapter woo

* * *

"Everyone—meet Grian!" Xisuma announced cheerfully to the hermits grouped around him, as the angel stood shyly next to him. 

Grian couldn't help but be nervous in front of all these new people. 

Sure, these people were meant to be his new friends—and would be eventually —but trust wasn't something that came easily for him. After witnessing the capture of all the other angels in the Aether, Grian only knew fear and loneliness. 

But now he had to look past all of that and only think about the new lands surrounding him. The grassy plains, vast oceans, forests filled with trees of all kinds and vibrant flowers—none of this was ever seen in the Aether. 

Despite his anxiety, Grian had to admit that he was excited to see all this new land.

Though, there was one slight issue with it all. 

He didn't know anything about the overworld. 

All of this was new to him. None of the pigs had wings, the cows were brown instead of that light grey and white that resembled the clouds, the soft wool of the sheep had no patterns on them, all of this was new. Hell, even the sky was a different color.

  
And more importantly, there were people here. Nice people, it seemed, though a few of them had a rather intimidating appearance to him.

  
Regardless, this was his home now; in this community of builders, redstone engineers, people of all sorts with their own sets of skills and interests. 

  
Pushing his thoughts aside, Grian introduced himself to the others. Taking a deep breath, he briefly looked over the small crowd of people surrounding him. Shaking off his nerves, he folded his hands and gave his introduction. 

"Hello, everyone. My name is Grian," he began. "I hope I can become friends with you all. I enjoy building and try to be creative with my structures. Hopefully I'll get to see what you all can build as well." 

Grian rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "I-I'm sorry if I seem overly nervous, it's just that—" he began before Xisuma cut him off. 

"Grian is from a place where not many people lived. He wasn't able to grow up around a lot of people. I trust that you all will be patient with him and help him ease into things," The admin took over, giving Grian a small pat on the shoulder, before clapping his hands. 

"Now then! All of you return to what you were doing before, it's best we give Grian some space before getting to know him better. Alright?" 

  
All the other hermits nodded in acknowledgement and went their separate ways, while Grian and Xisuma stayed back.

"You're officially a hermit now! Let me know if you need anything, okay?" Xisuma said, to which Grian nodded. The admin smiled and patted the angel's shoulder. "Try not to worry too much about the others—I promise you'll get along well with them. Take it easy and relax, alright? I guarantee that you'll be safe here with us." 

  
Grian nodded once more, offering a shy smile. "Thank you." 

* * *

After flying around and observing all of the different land around him—the areas of woods filled with different kinds of trees, the areas of hills covered in tall grasses with red, white, and yellow flowers dotted here and there, the deep, blue waters of the ocean—Grian finally settled by the shore of the ocean near an area with multiple small islands floating around in the water. 

Upon landing, he noticed what seemed to be a wooden structure underwater—a shipwreck. 

Though, Grian didn't actually know what a shipwreck was, Xisuma had mentioned it to him earlier during their conversation back in the Aether. 

The angel placed a boat he had crafted earlier in the water and paddled towards the area above the structure. Peering down into the water, he remembered that shipwrecks typically had one or two chests inside. After a moment of contemplating, he decided he would dive down into the water and see what was inside. Taking a deep breath, he flew briefly into the air before diving straight down into the water. 

Swimming down into the interior of the shipwreck, Grian quickly took a peek inside the chest. There were multiple iron ingots and nuggets inside, along with some lapis, emeralds, and a few slips of paper—which, oddly enough, didn't seem to affected by the water. 

His look at the contents of the chest was cut short, however, when he had to re-surface for air. Once back at the top, Grian had an idea. Once more, he dove back under the water and quickly made a pillar upward to the surface of the water using dirt. He then built a small platform above the pillar he had previously made. Diving back down again, he worked quickly to remove the blocks at the top of part of the shipwreck in order to create a flat surface, though it took him a few more swims back up to the surface for air. Once he finished, he crafted up a furnace, chucking some sand inside to smelt into glass. 

While the furnace was going, he placed more sand on the platform in a way that would allow him to create a glass dome under water. After placing all of the sand, he removed the platform blocks below it and watched as the sand fell down into the water and landed on the flattened surface below. 

Grian grabbed the smelted glass from the furnace after the sand finished falling, dove down, and quickly placed the glass in a small dome shape around the sand. He resurfaced for air once more before swimming down to the dome, breaking into it, and blocking himself in the small, two-block deep hole he created in the sand. He then cleared out the rest of the sand inside the dome and peered out into the surrounding ocean. It was a bit tedious, but he got it done.

Smiling, he took in the beautiful sight of the deep, blue water all around him, the green, gently-flowing kelp, reaching up towards the surface, which it could never quite breach, the deep green seagrass swaying back and forth, and the scaly, red salmon making their way around in the water, greeted by the small, beige cod, swimming around in schools. The sight was truly a lovely one, and the angel marveled at the beauty of this newly found environment that he was eager to explore. 

Unfortunately for him, Grian had not realized how much time passed while he was working underwater to form what would evolve into his starting base in his new home environment. 

Resurfacing to grab his furnace and chest that he left on the remains of the platform, he felt a sudden pain in his upper back near his shoulder. Turning swiftly around, he saw...well, he had no idea what it was. 

It was an awful sight; a mixture of green and teal with tattered, brown clothing. 

Never before has Grian seen something like this— none of the few hostile mobs in the Aether looked like this. 

Whatever this creature was, it was swimming towards him with what he recognized as a trident—Xisuma had described the item to him. The creature launched the trident at him again, which he was able to dodge, and with a rush of panic, he tried to fly out of the water. 

Unfortunately, his wings were too soaked to catch the air properly. More of the unknown creatures surrounded him as he hoisted himself up onto the platform—not before the trident grazed his leg. 

Grian winced as he leaned against his furnace, unable to ignore the spike of pain coming from both his shoulder and his leg. Keeping pressure on his shoulder wound, he looked around to see just how many of these creatures were around him. He spotted at least 10 or 12 around him, one wielding a trident, others a fishing rod, the rest with nothing. Grian realized his only option was to wait until morning—he had no bed to sleep in—most likely not having enough energy or strength to fight off all of these creatures around him. 

With a deep, weary sigh, he focused on keeping pressure on his shoulder wound, less concerned about the mere scratch on his leg. Trying his hardest to ignore the pain, the wounded angel closed his eyes and hoped that morning would come soon. 

  
Once it arrived, he would be safe. 

* * *


	3. Not Off to Great or Terrible Starts

* * *

Grian opened his eyes slowly, thankfully not to the horrid gurgling sounds that emerged from the throats of the creatures he was swarmed by previously. 

  
As he opened his eyes fully, expecting to see the ocean surrounding his platform he threw together on the surface of the water, he was surprised to see a stone interior with chests placed in carved out sections of the walls, which were dotted with torches, placed lazily around with no particular order to them. 

  
Sitting up with a slight groan, the angel took a glance around the room. He had no idea where he was, with no hints as to how he even got there. He looked down at his injured leg to see that it was now bandaged, as was his shoulder. 

Before he could contemplate on any of this further, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching, taking steps down the ladder placed against the far wall. 

  
In a sudden rush of slight panic, he teleported behind a small space in the back wall. 

  
Grian listened as the sound of footsteps came closer and closer, though they did not seem to approach him fully. He stiffened a bit as he heard a voice call out to him. 

  
“Come, now. Where have you gone? You need to rest so your injuries can heal," The voice said. The only voice Grian could recognize was Xisuma’s, considering he hadn’t heard anyone else’s. 

  
Whoever it was, he recognized it as a man’s voice. It wasn’t a voice that sounded threatening, but Grian couldn’t help but feel nervous about who it was. 

  
A couple of the other hermits he had seen at the start had an appearance that unsettled him a bit, and he hoped that whoever this was; it wasn’t one of them. 

  
He heard a small sigh come from the unknown man looking for him. “I don’t mean to frighten you—I just saw that you were injured and surrounded by drowned and decided it would be best to bring you somewhere safer. I apologize if it startled you,” The man said, his voice gentle and non-threatening. 

  
After another moment of no reply, the man resolved to leave for a while longer and return later. However, just as he turned to leave, a small figure peeked around the corner of a space behind the wall. 

“I, uh...I-I'm sorry,” Grian said meekly, barely peeking out from the small hiding space. 

  
The other man offered a small smile. “What for?” He asked. 

  
Grian glanced off to the side, not actually sure of his answer. He decided that, since the other showed no signs of hostility, he would fully move out from behind his hiding spot. 

Now having a better view, Grian briefly looked at the man in front of him. 

  
The man wore a black suit with a red tie, the suit matching his black hair, complimented by his deep, blue eyes. He had a soft smile plastered on his face, right below a tidy mustache. 

  
The man offered his hand, which Grian accepted for a handshake. 

  
“Grian, correct?” He said, to which the angel nodded. “My name is Mumbo. A pleasure to meet you, though it seems you’ve gotten off to a rather rough start here.” 

  
Grian shifted his bandaged shoulder slightly and grimaced slightly. “Er, yeah. I don’t even know what those creatures were. All I know is that one of them had a trident and that was what got me. What did you say those things were?” 

  
“Ah, those were drowned. Not the most dangerous or hard to deal with, unless they have a trident. In that case, flight is better than fight,” Mumbo explained. “though it seems that you were unable to do either of those.” 

  
Grian mentally kicked himself for being so clueless, though he knew he couldn’t blame himself too much, considering he only knew the lands of the Aether. 

  
“Thank you for helping me, and I’m sorry I was so clueless in the first place," He said. 

  
Mumbo patted the angel’s shoulder—the one that wasn’t injured—and smiled reassuringly. “It’s alright, Xisuma did mention that you didn’t grow up around many people. It’s reasonable for you not to know much since you haven’t had anyone to teach you. We’ll all be patient and help you, though!” He replied, which earned him a shy smile from Grian. 

  
“Oh! I noticed you were building something underwater. May I see what you’ve been working on?” Mumbo asked, curiously. With that, the other’s smile widened a bit with excitement. 

* * *

“Marvelous idea, Grian!” Mumbo exclaimed, peering out the glass at the surrounding ocean. 

  
The progress Grian made was something to be proud of: a restored shipwreck surrounded by glass in the shape of a bottle. He had yet to decorate inside the structure, but he was still proud of what he had so far— pleased by the fact that Mumbo enjoyed his idea as well. 

  
“Thank you. I’m glad this isn’t a totally lame idea for a base, or at least a starting one,” The angel said, smiling. 

Watching as the other hermit admired the view of the ocean inside of the yet-to-be finished base, Grian thought to himself: _This isn’t so bad, now, is it? I’ve worked myself up over this, when really these people give me no reason to be nervous. _

  
Realizing he could trust Mumbo, he felt more secure here with all of these people. 

  
Well, not counting those two in the lab coats... 

  
Shaking his previous thought away, the angel made his way over to Mumbo, who was standing out in the more open part of the bottle. The man turned to Grian with the same fascinated smile he had before. 

  
“It really is brilliant what you’ve done with it,” He gushed. 

  
Grian rubbed the back of his neck as he took a short look around the unfinished project. “Well, it isn’t quite finished yet," He said, shaking his head. “But thank you anyway.” 

Mumbo gave a small sigh before moving towards the exit. “I would love to stick around and see more of your progress, but unfortunately I’ve got to work on my base as well,” He apologized. 

  
Grian only shook his head in response, then looked at the man with a smile. “No worries. Don’t let me distract you from your own projects,” He replied. 

  
Mumbo reached his hand out for another handshake, which Grian accepted. 

  
“Do let me know if you need help with anything in the future. Oh—and take it easy with those wounds. Be careful around mobs as well—especially at night! Make a bed and sleep often, alright?” Mumbo told him, cutting himself off a bit before he ranted too much. 

  
Grian nodded. “I’ll try to be more careful. As for the help, thank you, and you let me know if you need any building help as well.” He smiled. 

Shortly after the other hermit departed, Grian resurfaced to gather a few materials to work on finishing his base. Before returning to the project, he gathered up some materials to make a bed. 

  
What good would the other’s advice be if he didn’t use it?

* * *


	4. Creepers, Elytras, and Drowning (Oh My)

* * *

_Kaboom_

  
The hermit winced and stared at the damage.

  
A creeper had blown up part of Mumbo’s beloved tree where he created a temporary resting and storage spot.

  
Sighing in defeat, he momentarily deployed his elytra to fly up to the platform to gather a few resources needed to repair the damage. 

“Good morning, Hermitcraft,” He mumbled in a sarcastic, exasperated tone. 

While patching up his tree and the hole created in the ground, Mumbo saw a familiar form off to the side in the ocean.

  
Grian was cleaning up his makeshift platform above his base, already seeming to have recovered from his injuries. Mumbo smiled and took off with his Elytra once more, gliding over to the smaller hermit. 

  
“Hey neighbor!” He said cheerfully, landing on one of the remaining blocks. The other hermit paused to look at him and smile. He offered a small wave before removing the rest of the blocks— leaving the blocks the two were standing on. 

While the angel removed the rest of the blocks, Mumbo noticed that what he assumed was Grian’s elytra had feathers all over it. Well, he hadn’t just now realized that there were feathers on them—he just hadn’t paid much attention to it before. 

  
“Are those feathers on your elytra?” He asked, curiously. 

  
Grian froze briefly, a small wave of anxiety crashing over him. “I, er...yeah, yeah they are,” He spat out nervously, trying not to let it show in his voice. 

  
He was slightly worried about Mumbo’s response, but, luckily, the other hermit didn’t seem to find his response suspicious. Instead, he asked; “Are you worried I would find that odd— putting feathers on an elytra?” 

Grian nodded nervously— he expected something worse, but he wasn’t about to complain, considering it kept him out of trouble. 

  
Mumbo responded with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, I actually think it looks rather nice. They almost resemble angel wings with the feathers on them,” He reassured the other, who gave a small sigh of relief. 

  
Dropping the subject, Mumbo peered down into the water at the other hermit’s base, noticing the green grass that had been added. 

  
Grian noticed him looking and sat down on his block. “It’s pretty much finished, now that I’ve added the greenery in it. Just some grass and a few flowers—made a bit of a difference, though,” He said, his head resting in his hand, smirking lazily. 

  
He glanced over at Mumbo, who was still peering at the transformed shipwreck below. 

  
“You know, I’m not doing anything interesting at the moment. Don’t let me distract you from your work again," He said. 

  
The other hermit looked at him, remembering he needed to do work down in his bunker. “I suppose I do have a bit to work on. I’ll check in with you some time after, alright?” Mumbo agreed. 

Grian nodded, then watched as the man took off with his elytra, flying back to his island. 

Grian resolved to go resource gathering, considering he had nothing better to do. 

  
While flying around and looking for an area with plenty of trees and flowers, the angel spotted another hermit. He didn’t know who it was, of course, though he did recall Xisuma mentioning someone dressed in a brown coat with a hat. Plus the cat sitting outside the cave entrance, which he could only assume was "Jellie", the cat X mentioned someone having.

  
The hermit was doing something inside of a cave, which was part of an island that had been modified to look a bit rougher and more geometric, a few palm trees scattered around. 

  
Just as Grian was landing, however, a short but still unpleasant death message had suddenly been displayed. 

_[Scar drowned.] _

Peering into the cave, Grian saw the unfortunate hermit’s belongings floating in a small pool of water. 

  
Not wanting him to lose it, Grian gathered up the items and placed them into a chest. He left a sign for the other to read before making his departure. 

* * *

Once he landed, the angel began to gather up wood from the many oak trees surrounding the area he found himself in. 

  
In addition to the wood, he gathered up some of the delicate, red flowers that had sprouted from the ground, their color complimenting the green grass surrounding them. 

Once he gathered up a sufficient amount of resources, he flew back over to his cozy yet somewhat cramped base down under the water. 

* * *

After a bit of a long mining session back at his base, the worn-out hermit deposited the resources he managed to find into a chest. He found some diamonds, plenty of coal, and a good amount of iron, though more diamonds would have been nice. 

  
Flopping onto his bed, Grian took a few hours to rest before he did anymore mining. 

* * *

Once he was much better rested, Grian returned to his mining area to continue looking for resources. After about an hour more of mining, he seemed to have discovered another hermit’s strip mine— as well as some diamonds. 

  
Following the path of the unknown hermit’s mine, the angel eventually found himself at Mumbo’s island, right near his tree. Glancing around, Grian saw no sign of his neighbor, and decided he would just return to his base. 

  
He descended down the ladder and blocked up the space between the two strip mines, though he left a sign for the other hermit before leaving. 

_'Grian’s strip mine ^ _

_Accidentally found your base.' _

* * *


	5. Tridents and Guardians

* * *

As the sun rose over a new day, Grian went around in a large square placing stone. He had just gotten rid of a platform, and now he needed a new one. Block by block, he was creating the construction base for his new project—his real base. 

  
Sure, he loved his cozy little shipwreck in a bottle underwater, but this was the futuristic district, as Xisuma had explained. The theme of the area was futuristic, and the theme of his starter base was not. 

  
The angel had contemplated over ideas for a new base, finally thinking of one. A circular tower; around 3 or 4 stories tall, moving inward as it reached up into the sky. It would be composed of mostly white concrete and cyan terracotta, maybe some sea lanterns, definitely some glass. 

  
Since his base was in the ocean, maybe he could even add an aquarium section underneath his build. 

For now, though—it was just a platform. 

The hermit dove down into the water, swimming down into his little shipwreck in a bottle. He was retrieving more stone when he noticed a chest placed in the open part of the shipwreck, along with a sign. Upon further inspection, the sign read; 

_Thanks for saving my stuff. Maybe this will come in handy. _

_-Scar_

Inside the chest was an object Grian had felt the power of firsthand. Though he would have dreaded to see it in the hand of a drowned, the sight of it here was a pleasant one. 

It was a trident—long and sturdy, with a rough texture coming from the prismarine it was carved out of. Picking up the trident, the hermit inspected it. It had the soft, enchanting glow of Loyalty, shimmering under the glow of the torches around him. 

  
Smiling, Grian closed the chest and retrieved the stone he had come down here for. Once he finished his platform, he would take some time to play around with this new toy. 

After finishing up his platform, Grian flew over to his neighbor’s island to peek at what he was building. The hermit was in the process of building up a large, circular frame, when he noticed the other arrive. Offering a smile and a quick wave, he returned to placing blocks in their respected areas. 

  
The angel took a moment to fly around and observe what was being built, trying not to disturb the other. Mumbo noticed his curiosity and said; “It’s going to be a storage area.” 

“A storage area? Not a base?” Grian questioned. 

  
Mumbo nodded. “It’ll be in a globe shape with sea lanterns running through the arms of the two circular frames I’m going to build—one down at the bottom, which I’ve already made, as you can see, and one up at the top. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll build in the center of it all, though I do have a few ideas,” He explained. 

  
Grian nodded through all of this, thinking about the other’s plan. “I think it sounds cool! Let me know if you need any help building it, alright?” He said. 

  
Mumbo nodded, returning to his work as the other took off and made his leave. 

The angel made his way over to the shopping district once night fell upon the world. Landing on top of one of the shops, Grian scouted the area for mobs to strike. 

He spotted a creeper near the coral shop, which he launched his trident at. The trident struck once before returning to his hand. On the second throw, the creeper was nothing more than a pile of gunpowder on the ground. 

  
After more looking around, he spotted a zombie, which he struck right in the head, killing it the first time. 

The hermit was momentarily surprised by the sound of someone clapping nearby. Looking over, he saw a man with brown hair and a shaggy beard, wearing a green hoodie with a vest over it, with light jeans and brown boots. He only had one eye it seemed, the other replaced by a small, metal plate with an even smaller diamond in the center. 

“Nice shot, there! First time using a trident?” The man called out to him, smiling. 

  
Grian flew over to the man, who seemed to have been watching him. “Yeah, I just got this today,” The angel replied.

The other hermit held out his hand for a handshake, which Grian accepted. 

  
“The name’s Iskall. You’re Grian, correct?” The other introduced, to which Grian nodded. “How have you been enjoying the place so far?” Iskall asked. 

  
The angel fidgeted with the trident in his hands. “Well, the start was a bit rough when I was ambushed by drowned—I didn’t even know what they were. Other than that, it’s been great. I made a shipwreck in a bottle for my starting base, and now I’m starting work on a new base," He explained, smiling. 

“Good to hear! I’ve heard about the shipwreck in a bottle—it sounds pretty cool. I’ll be sure to check out your future build as well—” Iskall paused. “—ah, behind you.” 

Turning around, Grian fired his trident at the skeleton pointed out by Iskall. The trident went straight through its skull and it collapsed into a pile of bones. 

  
“Good job, there,” Iskall said. 

  
Grian turned around, a small smile on his face. “What area do you live in?” He asked the other hermit. 

  
Iskall gestured to follow him, which Grian did, and the two flew over to the ice caps that had been transformed into a base. 

And, after much slipping on ice, Iskall showed Grian his guardian farm. 

“Guardian..farm..?” The angel questioned, having no clue what a guardian even was. 

  
Iskall brought him over to the killing area, which had what Grian thought were weird, giant fish with thorns in it.

“These are guardians, coming from a nearby sea temple. You stand here with your sword and just swing at them until they die. They drop prismarine as well,” Iskall explained. “For first time use, you can keep whatever drops you get, but after that, deposit them in the best next to you.” 

  
With that, the hermit began to walk away. Grian pulled out his sword and began slashing at the guardians, who, in return, struck him with their beams. 

  
The angel took a moment to conceal his wings—which he hadn't done in a while—to make sure they wouldn't be harmed. Besides, it was already cramped enough without his wings out.

Before Iskall left, he added; 

“Oh—and don’t pull the lever.” 

Which, of course, Grian did. 

And he immediately regretted it. 

* * *


	6. Wagons and Worries

* * *

He was trying his best not to laugh, he really was. 

  
But he couldn’t. 

  
He was laughing like a maniac. 

  
“It’s not funny!” Grian whined. 

  
But Mumbo couldn’t help himself. He was almost tearing up from laughing. 

Once more, Grian pouted, while Mumbo tried his best to compose himself. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just—” He couldn’t stop giggling. “He _said_ not to pull the lever—and now look at you! You’re starting to look like a guardian yourself!” He joked. 

Grian crossed his arms, wincing at the pinch of the thorns. “I didn’t think _this_ would happen if I pulled the lever,” He muttered. 

  
Mumbo finally stopped laughing, though he still had a few giggles left in him. “Oh, I’m sorry, Grian.” He chuckled, though apologetic. “You’ve really got some learning to do.” 

  
Kneeling down, he began carefully removing the thorns one by one. They were all over Grian—his arms, legs, hands, back, even a couple in his face. After each thorn was removed, Mumbo dabbed each wound with a small bit of wool soaked in a healing potion. 

  
He resolved to fully wrap Grian’s arms and hands with a bandage instead of using smaller ones, as well as his legs—the other wounds could be covered up individually. 

Once he was all bandaged up, Mumbo patted the smaller hermit’s shoulder. “Next time, maybe you shouldn’t pull the lever,” He teased.

  
Grian sighed; he felt so dumb for not being able to follow simple instructions. He couldn’t help it—it was a lever! You can’t place a button or lever in front of him and tell him not to use it. 

  
Still, he could have avoided it if he didn’t pull the lever. 

  
Luckily, none of the thorns hurt that badly—it was only a pinch, but they still stung a bit. He leaned over and wrapped his sore arms around the other hermit. 

  
Mumbo returned the hug, smiling softly. “Just be more careful, alright? I don’t want you getting hurt one day where I won’t be able to help you,” He said, to which Grian nodded. 

Releasing the hug, Mumbo ruffled the angel’s hair playfully. “Now then, while I do some more work on my base, you stay out of trouble. Okay?” 

  
With that, the two exited the bunker. Grian allowed his wings to unfurl, flying off towards his base. 

  
Diving down into the water, he had an idea for a small project. Searching in his chests—which were an absolute mess—he gathered up some wood, fences, and a few other materials. Once he resurfaced, he flew over to the shopping district, looking for a spot to place his new build. 

He found a small clearing near the coral shop, which he quickly began working in. He was going to build an old wagon-cart type shop where he could sell resources that took a while to gather up, which he also had extra of. He could sell sand, gravel, maybe quartz if he ever felt like going to the Nether, which he didn’t. 

While building up the wheels and base of his cart, another hermit wandered by—who he recognized as Tango, though he hadn’t spoken to him before. 

“Is it a dumbbell?” Tango questioned, watching the angel build. 

  
Before Grian could answer, Zedaph joined in. “Not a dumbbell,” He said. 

  
The two began throwing guesses around, sounding eager to find out what it was. 

  
Grian smiled playfully. “You can keep guessing, but I won’t tell you,” He said. 

  
As the other two hermits continued trying to guess what it was, Xisuma strode past as well, deciding he would take a look later. 

* * *

An hour or so passed when Grian was almost finished with his shop. Tango and Zedaph continued trying to guess what it was, when Xisuma returned. 

  
“It’s a wagon,” He said simply. 

  
Grian snapped his fingers and pointed at the admin. “Correct.” He smiled. 

  
The other two hermits stared at X. “You didn’t even look at it!” Tango whined. 

  
Xisuma smiled and turned to him. “I came past earlier and already knew; I didn’t have to look. The wooden wheels? Wagon,” He explained briefly. 

  
Grian chuckled and continued finishing up his shop. Adding a few more details, it was finally finished—now he just had to stock it and price it. Two stacks for a diamond seemed fair, considering it took him a while to gather the resources anyways. Placing all of the sand and gravel in separate chests, the shop was finally done. 

  
Standing back and admiring his little wagon, Grian smiled. It didn’t take him too long to build, plus he enjoyed building it. 

Suddenly, he felt an unexpected wave of anxiety as he saw something out of the corner of his eye— 

_A white lab coat. _

Quickly, he teleported behind his wagon, peering through a gap between the wool covering and the side of the interior. 

  
He assumed who he was seeing was another hermit—but this didn’t _look_ like a normal person. 

  
Whoever this was, they looked like they were half creeper, half..._cyborg?_ He couldn’t tell. 

  
Regardless, the angel was unsettled by the hermit’s appearance—especially the sight of a lab coat, along with the intimidating aura they gave off.

He _dreaded_ the sight of a lab coat. As far as he knew, lab coats were associated with the monsters that captured all of the other angels—and almost captured him as well. Those evil people who tore everything away from him when they took away his people. 

  
Grian watched as the hermit moved closer towards the small shop he was hiding behind. He tried his best to stay hidden, even concealing his breathing, with the fear that he was looking at one of the monsters he feared—who would know what he was just by looking at him and seeing those wings. 

  
He would know they weren’t just some fancy elytra, they were angel wings, and he was an angel. An angel who they would experiment on and torture—and what for? 

Too caught up in his own thoughts to notice, the hermit was now standing in front of him. Realizing this, Grian jumped and stepped back. 

“Woah, now. Didn’t mean to startle you!” The hermit said in a deep, accented voice. 

  
Grian suddenly remembered Xisuma mentioning a hermit who had this sort of appearance—his name was Doc. 

  
The hermit looked over the angel briefly. “Fancy elytra, there, but I think the feathers might get in the way of repairing them sometimes,” He observed. 

  
Shaking his head, Doc glanced at the shop beside them. “Nice little wagon you’ve build up. It’s getting dark, though. I’d suggest you go back to your little base underwater and rest.” 

  
With that, he began to walk away, before briefly pausing, and what he said before he left made Grian’s blood run cold. 

“You never know what might get you out here if you aren’t careful.” 

* * *


	7. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REAL QUICK  
Idk if I do or don't need to put this here but small trigger warning for a poorly written anxiety attack
> 
> (Edit as I'm messing with these: This is actually probably my favorite of the older chapters, it was the best written I've seen so far)

* * *

Frozen in place, Grian was still registering what the other had said. 

  
_“You never know what might get you out here if you aren’t careful.” _

  
The words swirled menacingly around in his head. It was hard for Grian to think clearly about this. 

  
Doc could have only been referencing the mobs that spawn at night—one could easily creep up on you. On the other hand, it could have been a threat. The angel was shaking as he thought of the possibility that Doc was out to get him. 

He was one of them, wasn't he? He was one of the people who stole Grian’s community—his _family_ —away from him. He was one of the people who took _everything_, and now he was coming back to take him too. 

  
He would capture Grian and it would be game over for him. He would be taken to some secret lab underground where they would chain him up and perform cruel experiments on him. 

The angel fell to his knees and covered his ears as he remembered. 

  
Remembered the terrified looks on everyone’s faces as these people stormed his home. Their shrieks as those _monsters_ in lab coats attacked them, knocked them out, captured them—and some were even killed. The sheer panic that ran through the realm as the angels were torn away from their home. Everyone lost everything, having done _nothing_ to deserve this. Fear was instilled in those who escaped, knowing they couldn’t hide for long. 

He remembered every second of it—from the moment it began to the moment when it was all over. When he was the last angel to be captured, and they were looking for him. When Taurtis said he would come back with the others, and he never did. He remembered when they tried to get him, but they failed. When he destroyed their portal, killed the rest of them in a moment of sheer anger and fear. He could never forget what happened there in the Aether. The moment would haunt him _forever_, permanent fear in his heart from the tragedy that cost him everything. 

The air around him grew heavier, making it hard to breathe. He couldn’t even process what was happening anymore. He couldn’t see what was around him. He couldn’t hear anything but his own heavy breathing and the sounds of terrified screams echoing in his head. He was unable to process _anything_, too caught up in whatever was happening to him to realize that someone had placed their hands on his shoulders. He was too overwhelmed to register a feeling of fear of who it was or what they were doing. 

He swore he heard someone’s voice. Someone trying to talk to him—but it was muffled. He couldn’t make out what they were saying. He felt warm arms wrap around him, gently holding his head against the person's chest. He could feel their breathing and even hear their heartbeat, but everything was still a blur. 

“Calm down, Grian. Just focus and breathe, okay? Breathe.” 

The words were still muffled, but Grian heard them this time. Trying to tune out his thoughts, the angel focused on the other’s breathing pattern. He tried his best to copy it, calming down as much as he could. 

“You’re doing good. Just keep breathing, okay? Deep breaths. It’s going to be okay.” 

This time, Grian was able to register the voice as that of Xisuma. The admin was gently rubbing the other’s back, right between his wings. As Grian slowly calmed down, he was able to register more and more of his surroundings. He was still in the same spot he was before—right next to his shop. It was still night time as well. The only difference was the other hermit comforting him and helping him breathe. 

“That’s it, just keep breathing. Focus on that only. Just breathe,” The admin soothed. Eventually, Xisuma managed to get the angel to calm down fully. 

  
Keeping his arms comfortingly around the smaller hermit, he asked what had happened. “If you don’t mind telling me, that is.” He added. 

  
Grian shook his head slightly. “Doc...” was all he managed to say, still shaken and slightly out of breath. 

The admin continued to rub Grian’s back gently. “What about Doc?” he asked. 

  
Grian took a deep breath. “He...he _said_ something to me. And his appearance—” He shuddered. “He looked like one of them . He said to me— ‘You never know what might get you out here if you aren’t careful,’ and I froze—I couldn't feel anything and I didn't know what was going on. It made it sound like he was out to get me—that he knew what I was, and he was one of them, I—” 

“Shh, it’s okay. Calm down.” Xisuma stopped him, noticing that he was beginning to tear up again. “I’m sure he meant no harm. Doc can be like that. Everything is okay.” 

  
The smaller hermit gave up on trying to hold back tears, seeing no point to it, especially since his cheeks were already covered in them. Xisuma gently moved Grian’s head to rest on his shoulder, allowing him to cry into it. He continued to rub gentle circles in the angel’s back in order to comfort him. 

Gradually, Grian was able to calm down, thanks to Xisuma. Once the other hermit was sure that Grian was fully calmed down, he suggested that he rest up. 

  
“Be careful on your way back, now. Let me know if you need anything—and there’s always Mumbo right across from you as well,” Xisuma told him before they parted ways. 

* * *

Flying back to his base, Grian tried to keep his mind silent, but it didn’t quite work. 

  
Without even having to think, he was already beginning to cry again. He didn’t know _why_—he just couldn’t help it. 

  
Swimming down into his little shipwreck in a bottle, the hermit had tears running down his face, replacing the ones washed away by the water. He leaned against the door for a moment, still shaking and crying. After his slight efforts to calm down again failed, he gave up, entering his room and crawling into bed. 

Trying to ignore the sobs still wracking his body, the angel warily hid underneath the blankets on his bed. 

  
_Maybe if I just lay here for long enough, I can sob myself to sleep. Or maybe these thoughts will get bored of me and leave. _

  
Not wanting to think about it any longer, Grian let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, trying to focus on the softness of the bed that would have felt like heaven if he weren’t so shaken at the moment. 

For now, it only felt like a safehouse that was created in a rush to escape mobs. It was there, giving off a sense of security, but it wasn’t the most pleasant thing, given the situation.

Closing his eyes, the hermit tried his best to ignore everything and fall asleep, hoping that it would act as consolation enough to have him perk right back up the following morning. 

But his thoughts wouldn’t let him.

  
Despite the admin’s comforting and reassurance, the angel still couldn’t shake the thought. 

  
What if Doc really _was_ one of these evil people? What if he knew Grian was an angel? What if he was truly one of the monsters who ripped his family away from him? 

And what if he was next? 

The horrid thoughts swirled violently in his mind, striking viciously at any ounce of safety he felt he had left. He felt like he was safe for most of his time here—but the obsidian walls were starting to feel like they were mere cobblestone. 

And these fears were the world's strongest pickaxe, swinging violently to break it all down. 

* * *


	8. No More Tears, Turtles!

* * *

The angel groaned as he rolled over in bed. It doesn’t matter how long he had slept—even he wasn’t sure of how long it had been—he still felt tired. It was a different kind of tired, though. 

  
Regardless, he didn’t want to leave his bed. He wasn’t able to fall asleep again, but he just didn’t want to get up. 

* * *

  
A few hours passed when Grian heard a light knock on his door. 

  
“Grian? Are you in here?” He heard Mumbo call out to him gently. 

  
Still, he didn’t move, didn’t get up, or say anything. Once more, the other hermit knocked. 

  
“Grian?” 

  
The angel only groaned in response, which earned a sigh from Mumbo. 

  
“I’m coming in, alright?” The hermit said, gently leaning on the door. 

  
No answer. 

  
With that, he entered the room. 

Mumbo’s heart sank as he saw the poor angel curled up in the room that was now dark—all of the torches were extinguished.

Moving over to sit on the bed, Mumbo noticed streaks of tears staining Grian’s face, his eyes still dark and puffy. He reached over to gently stroke the smaller hermit’s hair in an attempt to comfort him. 

The two stayed there in the dark, only able to hear the gentle ocean sounds and their own breathing. Other than that; silence. It wasn’t quite suffocating, but not quite comforting. 

  
At one point, the angel sat up enough to wrap his arms around the other’s waist and bury his face in his side. Mumbo put an arm around Grian, continuing to stroke the smaller hermit’s hair as he clung to him comfortably. 

Rather than stress him out by asking what happened, Mumbo decided he would try to cheer Grian up. 

  
“Will I be able to get you up to show you something, Grian?” He asked, his voice soft. 

The angel gave a small nod in reply, which was good enough for Mumbo. Instead of having them both walk, especially since the other was still tired, Mumbo carefully moved the smaller hermit onto his back to carry him. “Good, hopefully it’ll cheer you up a bit.” 

* * *

  
After much walking, the two arrived at a small, sandy shore area some ways off. Sitting on the sand were a few green creatures—_turtles! _

  
Though, Grian didn’t know what turtles were. Peeking over Mumbo’s shoulder, Grian saw a few tinier green mobs sitting near the larger ones. He didn’t know what they were, but boy, were they adorable . 

Climbing carefully off of the other’s back, the angel’s eyes gleamed as he picked up one of the small creatures. 

  
“What are they?” Grian asked, earning a smile from Mumbo. 

  
“Turtles. The smaller ones are baby turtles," he answered.

  
The angel beamed as he watched the other baby turtles crawl near him. They were so cute! 

Mumbo sat on the sand, watching from a small distance as Grian played around with the turtles. Thankfully, he cheered the other hermit up. 

  
He was still a bit curious as to what upset him in the first place, but he decided not to ask about it. He simply watched as the baby turtles crawled on his legs, one appearing interested in the feathers on his 'elytra'.

Just then, Mumbo heard the gliding of a hermit’s elytra nearby as Xisuma approached. Landing on the sand next to Mumbo, the other hermit greeted him with a smile. 

  
“Turtles, huh?” The admin glancing at Grian by the water, playing with the turtles. “I’m glad you’ve cheered him up. Last night was a bit rough for him.” 

“Might I ask what happened? He seemed awfully upset when I found him this morning,” Mumbo questioned. 

Xisuma sat down next to him, joining him in watching the baby turtles crawl all over the angel, who was now laying in the sand. “Well, in short, he had a bit of an anxiety attack. Something about Doc’s appearance caused it, and something he said apparently. The rest would be hard for me to explain to you—" he paused, humming uncertainly for a moment. "Well, not that it’s difficult to explain, it’s just not my place to tell you. I’d say it’s up to him to decide that,” he explained, gesturing towards Grian at the last bit. “It takes a lot for someone like him to trust people, considering what happened to him in his previous home. I’m glad to see that he’s warmed up to you. I trust you to be patient with him and help him learn, alright?” 

Mumbo nodded, thinking about how much Grian has trusted him. “I promise I’ll try to protect him. He really gets himself into trouble sometimes,” he replied. 

  
Xisuma patted the hermit’s shoulder. “I know you’ll do well. Even if he’s clueless about some things, he’ll still have you here to teach him,” he said, smiling. 

  
Taking another few seconds to watch the angel smile as he stroked the small shells of the turtles, the admin sighed thoughtfully, standing up. “Take good care of him for me, alright?” He added, before taking off with his elytra, flying off. 

Considering the Xisuma's words carefully, Mumbo continued to watch the small hermit in front of him. He was smiling and giggling, appearing much more cheerful than he was before. It brought a smile to Mumbo’s face. Not only was he able to see the new hermit enjoying himself, but he was also sure that he was doing his job. The one Xisuma trusted him to do. 

Even if he couldn’t be there every second, he was still able to keep the other safe and happy—at least, for the most part. He even educated Grian in a few things about the overworld. He only hoped that it could stay this way, and that the hermit could eventually warm up to everyone else, befriend them all, and feel safer here. 

Grian had felt this way, too. He already became friends with Mumbo, and he was close to becoming friends with Iskall. He was beginning to learn more and feel safer here. 

  
Even after the incident the night before, he knew there were people here he could trust. He wanted to feel that way with all of them. He wanted to be able to mess around with the other hermits, build with them, maybe even play pranks with them, as he had done before with the angels in the Aether. 

So what if he was getting a new start, here. Why did it have to be any different? These were all nice people who all got along with each other in their own community—just like the angels had. Why couldn’t he do the same here, as he did with the angels before? Build things, make friends, play pranks on each other—the hermits did that, and so did Grian with the angels, so why couldn’t he do the same here? 

  
He wanted to. He wanted to trust them all, be friends with them, build with them, mess around with them. He just had to figure out how to approach them all first. He already befriended Mumbo and got a start with Iskall, he even got a trident from Scar, and he entertained Tango and Zedaph with his build in the shopping district. He opened up to Xisuma on the first day they met. 

And maybe, he could open up about it to Mumbo soon, too. 

* * *


	9. Every Day, a Single Rose

* * *

The angel got up, seeming to have fallen asleep on the ground. 

Except...this wasn’t the same ground he fell asleep on. 

Instead of sand, it was grass. A mint green color grass... 

Suddenly, he knew where he was. 

_He was back at the Aether. _

But...how? 

Standing up, Grian looked around, confused. How did he end up back here? He couldn’t see a portal anywhere, and there was no other way to get there without one. What was going on here? 

His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice behind him.

“Grian? Are you okay?” 

The angel froze. He recognized that voice immediately. No doubt about it. Turning around, he couldn’t believe who he was seeing. His eyes began to fill with tears. 

“Taurtis?” He cried softly. 

There he was, standing right in front of him. The angel who used to be his best friend, until he was captured, along with the others. Yet, here he was, looking perfectly fine, aside from the look of concern on his face. 

“Grian, what’s wrong?” The other angel asked, placing his hands on Grian’s shoulders. “Is everything okay? You’re crying.” 

  
All Grian could do was stare at him. He couldn’t tell if what he was seeing was real. 

  
For now, he didn’t care. He wrapped his arms around Taurtis, pulling him into a tight hug and burying his face in his chest. 

  
“Come on, now. Don’t cry.” Taurtis said in a gentle voice, hoping to comfort the smaller angel in his embrace. Grian was sure this had to be a dream—there was no way it was real. He saw it all happen, and he knew there was no reversing it. 

Suddenly, everything around him began to fade. The trees, the grass, even Taurtis. 

This was the end of his dream. 

He felt himself waking up, but he heard one last thing from his friend before he woke up. 

_“We’ll never be truly gone, Grian .” _

Shaken awake by Mumbo, the angel quickly wiped the slight tears from his eyes. 

“Are you alright, Grian?” The other hermit asked, still sounding tired. Glancing around, Grian noticed it was still nighttime. 

  
He gave a small nod, glancing at the sand to see the turtles gone as well. 

  
Mumbo arose from the ground, offering a hand to the other to pull him up. “We should probably go back to our bases to sleep before mobs get us out here.” He said, yawning. 

The two took off towards their bases, though Grian didn’t go down to his quite yet. Instead, he went to find a few red roses, plus a few other materials. 

  
Flying around, he spotted an area with plenty of flowers—and plenty of roses. Taking a moment, the angel landed in the flower-filled area, gathering up as many roses as he could find, along with plenty of grass blocks and some stone. He also had to gather up some bits of black wool, which wasn't as difficult as he thought it might be. 

Flying back over to his base, Grian landed on his platform. He looked down into the water to find a big, open space to build in. After he picked a spot, he dove down into his underwater base to grab some glass, along with something to get rid of the water. 

Swimming back onto his platform, he dove down into the water towards the area he chose. After many trials of diving down, placing blocks, and resurfacing for air, Grian finally created a small—but not too small—room-like structure made from glass. 

  
He then took the stone and built up a somewhat-tall square with two corners taken out. He then placed the black wool in one spot on both sides, connected by a strip of more black wool. Finally, he removed a patch of blocks in the ground in front of the structure, replacing them with grass blocks. He took out a single rose, planting it in the grass in front of the structure. 

Stepping back, it looked just like the one from his memories. Well, before it became cracked and worn, that is. The structure was a bit of a statue made to symbolize the face of his old friend, Tautris. He still remembered when he first made it back in the Aether, back when everyone was still there—still alive . 

He always called it the “Taurtis Summoning Platform.” Everyday, he would place a single red rose in the grass in front of the statue. For a while, it didn’t do anything. After he continued his daily routine of placing a rose there, however, he eventually got somewhere with it. From that point on, everyday, when he would place a flower in the grass, Taurtis would fly up behind him and surprise him with a hug. It became a part of both their daily routines. Everyday, Grian would place a rose in the grass, and everyday, Taurtis would hide in a tree, waiting for him to place the rose before flying over and hugging him. 

  
Even after the incident, Grian continued placing flowers, hoping that someday, Taurtis would appear again. Rose after rose, he never gave up on it. Even as all of the roses around him withered, he still left a rose for Taurtis there every single day. 

Now, he would do it again. Everyday, he would come down here and place a rose in the grass. Even if he knew that it wouldn’t do anything, he would still leave a rose in the grass. 

And, maybe...just maybe— 

He would get to see his best friend again. 

* * *


	10. Bringing Back An Old Buddy

* * *

Rather than waking up feeling depressed again—or, rather, _not_ waking up _ due to_ feeling depressed, again—Grian decided to distract himself with building. 

  
It was something he always did well. Building houses, building towers, building platforms, building bases—building almost _anything_. 

  
He even had a building buddy to help him with it—though, that was in the past. Besides, the little guy (he called him a ”little guy,” though in reality he was only a couple inches shorter) refused to build anything modern and would only build rustic houses, which was where he got his small, cozy one back in the Aether. It was built by the building buddy he created. 

Speaking of which, Grian remembered where he was. Usually, he would be shoved into a closet and silenced. However, the angel brought him with him to the overworld. He made sure to retrieve him before leaving with Xisuma. 

Digging around in one of his chests, he found the small pouch labeled "NPC." Opening the pouch, he made sure that the crystal containing the little fella was still there. Sure enough, it was—along with the paper containing summoning instructions, folded neatly bedisde it, as well as a miniature command block, used only to program the being. 

The angel closed the pouch, stuffing it into his pocket. He then gathered up a bunch of redstone dust and made his way up to his platform, where he had already began building up the base for his tower. Kneeling in the center, he pulled out the small instruction paper and read over it. Following the pattern on the paper, he sprinkled the redstone dust around in a pentagram shape, placing the crystal in the middle. Typically, it would be made between 5 rustic house models, but that was for initial summoning, rather than freeing him from a crystal. 

Placing a redstone torch near the dust, Grian ignited it, watching as it glowed an ominous red. The crystal in the center began shaking as the color faded from dark red to white, and a shadow formed above it. 

  
Slowly, that shadow took the shape of a person—one that looked similar to Grian, only this one had a broader chest and was wingless, as well as a few inches off his height compared to Grian. In a flash, the circle went up in a red flame as it disappeared, leaving only the small, white crystal in the center—along with the angel's old, dysfunctional building buddy. 

_NPC Grian. _

  
Or, NPC for short. 

He wasn't awake, only sitting there, deactivated. This gave Grian the opportunity to try and fix him. He was a demon, yes, but also technically part robot. 

  
Pulling out the miniature command block from the pouch, Grian analyzed the code, making a few tweaks and changes, hoping to iron out a few bugs, as well as add a few things. If the reprogramming worked, he would have emotions and a real personality instead of being a monotonous, empty-sounding NPC. 

Once he was finished, he reactivated his old buddy and stepped back. A glow went over the slumped over robot as he was reactivated. He opened his eyes, springing back to life. 

"Grian!!" The NPC cheered, lunging at the angel to embrace him excitedly. His voice sounded almost the same as Grian's—only his had a robotic sound to it.

  
"You seem awfully happy. Then again, that could be the reprogramming." Grian chuckled, briefly returning the hug. 

  
NPC Grian moved back—his eyes gleaming as he smiled widely. He looked around, taking in the new setting. "Where are we? This isn't home. Home is up there!" He said, pointing to the sky. 

Grian sighed as his heart sank, placing a hand on the robot's shoulder. "NPC, do you remember what happened?" He asked. NPC tilted his head in confusion. 

  
Suddenly, he remembered, and his eyes no longer glowed with excitement. "Oh...so...we can't go home? Wait, but isn't home safe?" He questioned. 

Grian shook his head. "We all thought it was safe, and that turned out to be untrue. Even though the overworld is no safer, we can still be safe here; in hermitcraft. These people are nice—though a couple remind me of _them ._ We can trust them, though. The only one who knows what I am is Xisuma, and he's ensured the safety of this place," The angel explained. 

NPC sat listening, his expression making him look like a sad puppy who lost its owner. 

  
Grian noticed this and sighed, pulling his robotic friend into a hug. "Maybe giving you emotions was bad. I don't want you to feel misery," He muttered. 

  
NPC shook his head. "I want to feel what you feel. Even if it's sadness, I want to feel with you..." He replied, Grian's eyes widening a bit when he heard the last word he added. It was a word he hadn’t hear—hadn’t been called —in a long time. 

_ "Brother." _

* * *


	11. Mr Spoon, Meet Goofball #2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter I'm gonna fix today so I can go back to watching Mrs Wels' stream

* * *

“What happened to refusing to build anything non-rustic house or modern?” Grian asked playfully. 

  
He and NPC were working on building up the sides of his base when he decided to ask. 

  
“This is the futuristic district, no? That means it isn’t modern! Plus, you’ve made changes to my code, so I’m not broken anymore!” NPC Grian chuckled. “Though I do still love rustic houses,” He added, mumbling. 

Studying the NPC, Grian was satisfied with the changes he made to the other's code. He seemed much more cheerful, happy to help build the base, which he wouldn't have done in the past. NPC also had placed a few flower barrettes in his hair, and he had a small satchel—the kind with one long shoulder strap—slung over his left shoulder, which he kept all sorts of small flowers in—mostly roses. It made him seem less like a demon, more like the cheerful little brother Grian considered him to be. 

The angel gave a small smile before getting up from kneeling to place blocks. “Why don’t we take a break and check on Mumbo?” He offered.

NPC looked at him, tilting his head. For a moment, Grian didn’t understand the robot’s confusion. 

  
Suddenly, it clicked in his head. “I haven’t introduced you to Mumbo yet, have I?” He asked, to which NPC nodded. Grian glanced over in the direction of the other hermit’s island. 

  
“Well, I guess we’ll do that instead!” He said, cheerfully, signaling NPC to deploy the elytra he had given him. Grabbing the robot’s hand, the two took off, Grian guiding the other to Mumbo’s base. 

* * *

  


“Mumbo Jumbolio, what are you up to, now?” The angel called out, playfully. Landing on Mumbo's tree platform with NPC, Grian saw the hermit pause what he was doing, which seemed to be building a large circle somewhere near the middle of the island. When Mumbo turned to greet them, however, NPC Grian hid behind his brother. 

“Hey, Grian! Er, who's that behind you?” the other hermit called out, noticing the slightly smaller figure behind the angel. 

  
NPC poked his head out before moving to stand next to Grian again. The robot's eyes were lit up with curiosity. His brother gently ruffled his hair, being careful not to disturb the barrettes, and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“This is NPC Grian, or just NPC for short. He helps me build things, and he's pretty much my little brother,” The angel explained briefly to Mumbo, who glided over to them. 

  
The hermit extended a hand towards NPC, who looked at it before shaking it. “I'm Mumbo. Nice to meet you, NPC Grian," He said with a smile. He briefly studied the smaller one's features, comparing them to Grian’s in his mind. 

  
“You created him, I presume?” Mumbo questioned, to which Grian nodded.

“Back in the—” 

With a slight, quiet grimace, the angel cut himself off. “Back at home. It was a long time ago when I made him, though. Plus, he's had a few adjustments,” He continued. 

  
Mumbo gave a quick, thoughtful nod, and NPC smiled. “I'm not broken anymore!” He exclaimed, oddly cheerfully. 

“Well, I wouldn't say you were broken in the first place. Just a couple bugs in your code, that's all," Grian corrected. 

  
NPC shrugged, flying over to look at what Mumbo had began building. His eyes glowed softly as he scanned over it with his eyes. “What will this be?” He asked, turning to Mumbo. 

  
“Ah, it'll be a bit of a storage system. It'll be Built up in a globular shape, mainly just a frame made of a circle here at the bottom, a similar one at the top. In the middle, there will be some sort of platform for the actual storage area. That's as far as I've come up with," The hermit explained. 

Taking a quick glance over the circle, NPC smiled. “It sounds cool!” He exclaimed happily, landing on the ground to study the circle’s dimensions. 

  
Mumbo turned to Grian, who watched the robot scan over each block that was placed. “He seems awfully enthusiastic about building.” The hermit mused, returning his gaze to NPC. 

  
Grian crossed his arms, sighing happily. “Good. I did make him for building. Besides, his enthusiasm is comforting. Gives me confidence in my builds, y'know?” The angel smiled. 

“Alright, little bro. Let's leave Mumbo alone, now, and maybe go poke around the shopping district a bit. Maybe we can head over to Iskall's base next and I can introduce you to him, too.” Grian called out to NPC, who turned to him and smiled. Quickly digging into his satchel, the NPC pulled out a red rose and planted it in the grassy patch in the center of the circle. He then flew over to Grian—or, more like flew into Grian, throwing his arms around his brother for an energetic hug. 

“Yes!! I want to meet more of your friends!” NPC Grian cheered, eyes glowing happily. 

  
Grian chuckled as he wrapped his arms around his little brother, deciding he could just carry him. “Alright, alright! I'll introduce you later,” The angel said, his smile widening as he turned to Mumbo. “Good luck with the build—and let us know if you need anything, okay?” 

The hermit nodded, giving NPC a small pat on the head before the other took off towards the shopping district, carrying the happy robot in his arms. 

_What a curious couple of goofballs ,_ Mumbo thought to himself, shaking his head. 

* * *


	12. "Danger!!"

* * *

The angel took to the skies as he examined the beginnings of a new base. Taking in the sight of the started base from afar, Grian smiled. He was proud of what he and his NPC brother had built so far, though it was still far from finished. The two managed to build up the walls for the next level, having finished the first one. Still, there was much work for them to do. 

Regardless, he was excited to see how it would turn out in the end—considering the amount of resources it required. The main resource he needed was the white concrete, which he had just gathered up more of. Landing on the edge of his current structure, the hermit looked off into the distance to see that Mumbo had also made progress on his base structure, though he said it was going to be more of a storage area. 

  
The structure so far was just an outline of a large sphere/globe, which would later have white stained-glass implemented into the arms of the frame, which was built out of the same material Grian was making use of—white concrete. 

Returning his focus to his own building, the angel continued to work on the cylinder-shaped structure, while NPC Grian leaned against a wall to recharge his energy a bit. He wasn't "asleep," he was just taking a break, looking around to make sure no mobs showed up as he did. 

  
Earlier, after repeating the design sitting around the bottom of the concrete walls and working on the next floor, Grian had realized that the structure was starting to look like an odd, futuristic flower pot—or maybe a blender. 

  
Flying a bit higher for a better view, he beamed at the sight of their progress. He and NPC had been working for days on end, watching as day and night passed quickly. In fact, he had been too preoccupied with building to realize that night had fallen once more. He stayed in the air a moment longer, gazing down at what would soon become his new base. 

The platform and structure had been lazily lit up with torches, which would eventually be replaced by the much nicer-looking sea lantern blocks he had in mind—with much better placement as well. 

Just as the angel was about to fly back down towards his base structure to continue building, he heard an alarming shriek—or was it more of a hiss? —from somewhere up in the sky around him. Quickly checking his surroundings, he saw nothing. Hearing nothing, he thought to himself; _I must be imagining things. _

Suddenly, that theory was disproven as he heard the alarmed shouting of NPC down on the platform below. 

“Danger!! Danger!!” He yelled out frantically, eyes glowing a dangerous red color. 

Out of nowhere, a flying creature came into view. It was a dark blue color with menacing green eyes that pierced his very soul, its underside appearing a beige color. As it flew closer, another appeared behind it—and another right behind Grian. 

  
Before he could do anything to escape, one of the creatures charged at him suddenly, headbutting him and forcing him backwards. Just then, the one approaching behind him let out a loud hiss as it flew at him and bit down hard on his wing. The angel let out a shriek as he tried his hardest to shake the creature off. He succeeded—but it didn’t stop the others from circling around him, charging at different times, scratching up his face and arms. 

Caught up in what was happening, he wasn’t able to see that NPC had deployed his elytra, flying as fast as he could over to Mumbo’s island, still yelling in alarm. He would have flown up to help Grian out himself if it weren’t for the fact that he wasn’t programmed to fight. Besides, he didn’t know what these creatures were either, which meant he didn’t know how they behaved, and he would be clueless as to how he could safely deal with them. 

  
All he could do was grab his shield—which, he did, before rushing over to get Mumbo—and hope it would be enough defense. 

In a rush, Grian reached into his inventory and pulled out a small pouch of glowstone dust, scattering it around him. The dust was suspended in the air as Grian formed it into a temporary force field, hoping it would help shield him as he attempted to escape. 

  
The hermit let out another panicked yell as the creatures charged at his defensive shield. He tried to get away, but they continued circling him viciously, interrupting his movement every time they lunged at him. Even if they couldn't hurt him right now, he was practically trapped.

Mumbo had been taking a look at his own structure when he heard the deathly shriek of phantoms. He knew they weren’t his—he had already slept the night before. Plus, these sounded much more distant. All of a sudden, he heard the alarmed yelling of the robotic figure approaching him—NPC Grian. 

“Mumbo, danger!!” He cried, gripping Mumbo’s sleeve and pulling on it, frantically. “Brother is in danger!!” 

* * *

Mumbo, led by NPC, flew over towards what appeared to be a glowing ball. Flying closer, he realized that the phantoms were charging at it repeatedly—and Grian was inside of it. 

  
"This is why you two need to sleep, otherwise these phantoms will come after you—and they aren't friendly at all!" Mumbo told the NPC guiding him, alarm flowing through him.

Just as Mumbo flew even closer, the glow seemed to shatter and disappear as the phantoms continued to charge at the other hermit, giving him no chance to try and escape. 

  
Mumbo flew over as quickly as he could, hoping that the phantoms didn’t do too much damage already. Just as he drew his sword, the beaten angel suffered another bite to his arm, grimacing in pain. 

As swiftly as he could, Mumbo slashed the violent creature off of Grian’s arm, taking a few scratches from the other phantoms. As he did so, he heard the weakened hermit wince in pain. 

  
“Mumbo?” He cried, finally registering what was going on—he was in too much of a panic, and he didn't know what to do. The wounded phantom circled back around to charge at Mumbo, but before it could hit him, NPC blocked it with his shield, knocking it back. 

  
The other phantoms had flown slightly farther from the two, but Mumbo knew they were coming back around. Just as one of them charged at Mumbo, the other was approaching from behind Grian as well. NPC would have blocked it, but he was still trying to fight off the phantom he previously knocked back—which was rather difficult when you don’t have a weapon or a clue as to how to fight. 

Slashing at the approaching creature and driving it away again, Mumbo would have been relieved, but the other was flying in fast. “Behind you!” Mumbo yelled to Grian, who was in too much of a panic to realize he should have ducked. 

As a result, the phantom charged and collided right with Grian’s face as he turned around to see what was behind him. He grimaced as he suddenly lost his balance, as well as his ability to stay steady the air.

Slaying the phantom he was focused on before, Mumbo turned around to strike at the other. Instead, he heard the panicked yell of NPC as both saw Grian’s “elytra” give out.

And he plummeted right into the ocean. 

* * *


	13. Falling

* * *

Right before he collided with the water, Grian heard the other hermit call out his name in a panic, along with a frightened yell from his brother. 

  
The angel had no energy left to try and prevent himself from falling, feeling weak as his body ripped through the ocean’s surface violently. Normally it would have stung a bit, but he was already going numb from the attack. 

  
His vision went blurry as he sank down into the water, and the last thing he saw was another breach in the ocean’s surface as another hermit dove down into it.

And then everything went black.

* * *


	14. What Happened?

* * *

_“...an...Grian...”_

“Grian!”

The angel slowly opened his eyes, vision still slightly blurry.

_What happened?_

Grian let out a slight groan as he tried to adjust his vision. Once he did, he recognized where he was. Those same stone walls he had seen before—though they had slight changes to them now. He was in Mumbo’s bunker, and standing over him was the hermit himself, as well as NPC Grian, a look of pure concern plastered on both their faces.

Grian tried to sit up, but a sudden spike of pain wracked his body. Wincing, he remembered what had happened. One moment, he was admiring his building progress. The next, he was being attacked by creatures he had yet to know about. Then, he remembered he was falling.

_And then, everything went black. _

“Easy, easy. You need to relax and rest up, majorly," He heard Mumbo say as he was laid back down. “Stay right there, and I’ll go grab a few potions, alright?” 

  
The angel tried to nod, but his head was still spinning. Instead, he made a small noise to signal that he wouldn’t move. The other hermit then quickly ascended up the ladder to the surface of his island.

NPC followed him, turning to Grian before he left. “I’ll go watch over your base, and maybe do some work on it,” He said. Pausing for a moment, he walked back over to the angel, giving him a quick, gentle hug before beginning to climb the ladder once more. “Get well soon, brother,” He added, exiting the bunker.

Right after, Mumbo came back, a few healing potions in his arms. He returned to the angel’s side, kneeling down and placing the bottles next to him. Supporting him with a hand on his back, Mumbo helped Grian sit up and retrieved one of the potions. He then assisted the smaller hermit in drinking it, then helped him lay back down. 

  
“Rest up, now. You took quite a beating from those phantoms.” Mumbo said, sitting on a block placed next to the bed Grian was laying on. The angel glanced over at the other hermit, noticing the deep concern in his eyes. He also seemed to notice slight streaks running down the man’s face, starting from his eyes. Had he been crying?

Grian decided not to ask. Instead, he moved his hand over, suppressing a wince—it still hurt to move his arm— and pressed the back of his finger against Mumbo’s hand. The other glanced over at Grian as he gently rubbed the weary hermit’s hand, in an attempt to comfort him. Mumbo sighed gently before taking Grian’s hand in his own, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I’ll be alright, Mumbo. Just go back on up to your island and keep working on your project. I’ll be back up on my feet in no time,” Grian said, a small smile on his poor, scratched up face. 

  
Mumbo looked at him and sighed once more. “I’d prefer to stay down here with you just in case," He replied warily. 

  
Grian only shook his head, insisting the other not worry about him.

Eventually, Mumbo gave in. He got up from where he was sitting and made his way over to the ladder. He glanced back at the angel, who was now asleep—as he should be—before climbing back up to work on his project.

* * *


	15. What's The Worst That Could Happen?

* * *

After a few days of resting up and healing, Grian was back up on his feet, though he stayed around Mumbo while he built more of his huge storage space project, NPC Grian checking in a few times to see how he was doing and tell him about his progress on the base. Mumbo had insisted Grian stay with him at his island until he could be sure that the reckless hermit was fully healed, NPC agreeing with him. 

Of course, Grian had no problem with it—he enjoyed sticking around watching Mumbo build—but he began to feel bad, considering this was the second time the hermit had to help him recover from a mob incident. Plus, he was leaving his brother to do all of his work back at his own base. 

  
“So, what exactly were those things that attacked me? I’ve never seen them before," Grian asked at one point.

  
Mumbo was taking a break from building to relax a bit. “Those were phantoms. They pack quite a punch—as you’ve unfortunately experienced,” he began, and Grian grimaced. “The only way you can keep them away is by sleeping. Stay up too many nights in a row and they begin to come after you at night. That’s why I told you to be sure that you sleep often at the beginning. Speaking of which, what happened to sleeping like I told you to?” 

The angel shifted a bit before answering. “I, er, was busy building my base.” he said, looking at the floor. “We forgot about sleeping.” 

  
Mumbo sighed. “What will I ever do with you, Grian? Make sure you sleep next time, alright?” He scolded. 

* * *

Much later, Grian heard a sudden, loud, and dramatic “Ugh” from Mumbo, who had resumed work on his building. 

Flying over to the other hermit, Grian asked, in a slightly teasing manner: “What’s wrong, Mr. Mustache?” 

  
Mumbo gently flicked the smaller hermit’s nose, earning a small yelp. “I’ve run out of quartz again,” He said, sighing. 

  
Rubbing his nose—though it didn’t actually hurt in the slightest— Grian asked, “Why don’t you just pop into the Nether for more?” 

Mumbo leaned against part of the structure he had been building on previously. “Well, the main issue is that I don’t want to have to leave you here by yourself.” He explained, to which Grian replied, “That’s all?"

  
Mumbo nodded, seeing as he still perceived the other as a bit reckless. Although Grian didn’t like the Nether much—it was much too hostile compared to his previous home in the Aether—he figured he could deal with it to assist his friend. 

“I could go with you,” He said.

  
Mumbo glanced at him, before sighing and glancing at the ground below them. “That’s the other thing, I’m not sure it would be best to take you with me, considering your injuries might not have fully healed by now.” 

  
Grian crossed his arms with a slight pouting gesture. “I'll be fine to go, Mumbo. It’s not like my injuries are preventing me from doing anything. Besides, I know how the Nether works. I’ll be careful. We could even bring NPC for extra support,” He protested. 

  
Mumbo stared at the other for a moment before sighing in defeated. “Alright, but we’re making this trip quick.” 

* * *


	16. Slight Change of Plans

* * *

Grian shuddered as he emerged from the dark, obsidian frame that surrounded the glowing, swirling, purple portal. 

  
Immediately, his senses were overwhelmed with the smoky stench of fire and lava flooding the red terrain around them. He spotted a few zombie pigmen and their shiny, gold swords, minding their own business. Luckily, he saw no ghasts around, though he didn’t see much quartz either. 

Thankfully, no _demons_ either—which, admittedly, Grian felt was an odd relief, considering his brother was technically part demon. 

“We may have to do a bit of searching for it,” Mumbo said, as he emerged from the portal, into the fiery hellscape, along with their robotic companion, who was only equipped with a shield. 

  
Grian sighed as he set off in the search for nether quartz. Admittedly, he was eager to leave, considering the Nether was literally hell. He waited for Mumbo and NPC to catch up, when all of a sudden, he heard the groan of a zombie pigman, right by his face. He turned to see one right next to him—which made him jump slightly. The creature looked at him for a moment, before it spoke to him. 

“Angel?” It said, before it was shushed by Grian. 

  
He gestured towards Mumbo, who was mining a nearby bit of quartz. “He doesn’t know,” He continued, to which the pigman turned its head. 

  
Grian sighed, putting a finger to his lips, signaling the creature to remain quiet about him being an angel. The pigman said nothing in response, though it followed him around as he went over to Mumbo, while NPC Grian was already ahead of them, searching for more quartz. 

  
“Looks like you’ve made a friend!” The other hermit chuckled, before moving on to the new area NPC found. 

* * *

After around an hour of traveling far into the Nether and gathering quartz, the three were finally ready to make their leave. However, on the way back to the portal, NPC Grian spotted a Nether fortress, his eyes lighting up. 

  
“A Nether fortress!! Oh, can we please explore it? I’ve never seen one before!” He cried enthusiastically. Unlike Grian, he didn’t actually know much about the Nether, despite being part demon. 

“I suppose I could use more blaze rods,” Mumbo mumbled to himself. 

  
Although Grian wanted to leave quickly at first, he wouldn’t mind if they stayed a bit longer. Especially since they had a fourth friend with them, though it didn’t do much but follow them around. 

"We can grab some if you’d like,” He said, surpressing a sigh.

  
Mumbo pondered it for a moment longer before deciding to go in. Grian and the zombie pigman trailed behind the other hermit as he searched for a blaze spawner. NPC continued staying close to his brother in order to keep him safe, shield constantly up, though he didn’t actually know how to fight. 

“How come you know a lot about mobs, but don’t know how to fight?” Mumbo had asked one day. 

NPC only shrugged in response. “I was created for building. It’s not in my code.” Which, inevitably, only added to Mumbo’s curiosity towards this odd robot/demon _thing_ Grian had created. Well, _summoned_.

After poking around hallways and corridors, as well as a few run-ins with wither skeletons, Mumbo finally found a blaze spawner. Gesturing for Grian and their two other companions to stay back, the hermit went up to the spawner to defeat a few blazes. 

And, even with the shield NPC had, staying back behind Mumbo wasn’t the most helpful suggestion, since another blaze spawner sat right beside him. 

Which had no problem spawning a new hoard of blazes, already fired up and taking aim at the other three. 

* * *


	17. A Wave of Misfortune

* * *

It wasn’t too long before Grian was almost hit by the fireballs flung at him by a blaze. Thankfully, NPC was there to swiftly block the attacks with his shield. 

  
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” The angel groaned, drawing a sword. 

  
Being shielded from the fireballs once more, he ran over and struck one of the blazes right between the eyes, slaying it quickly. 

  
Unfortunately, he was too close to dodge or block the other blaze’s attacks, and he was hit with a blast that sent him flying backwards, almost right into Mumbo, who was all the way over at the other spawner. 

The other hermit turned around quickly as Grian pushed himself up and off of the floor with a groan. 

  
“I’d say now is a good time to leave, no?” He grimaced. 

  
Before Mumbo could react, all of the blazes around them began to fire at both of them. Grian lowered himself again, taking Mumbo down with him. Thankfully, half the attacks were absorbed the NPC’s shield, but that would only protect them from a few of the angry creatures. 

The angel remembered that he could create a shield around them, but there was one slight problem. 

_Mumbo didn’t know he could do all this. _

As much as it pained him, Grian dragged the other hermit away, instead of choosing what might have been the better option, NPC trailing behind them. Besides, chances were that they could get away. 

  
But, as it turns out, luck wasn’t on their side, which it really hadn’t been for Grian lately. A few blazes followed them, though there was enough distance for their shots to barely miss, and any that came close were blocked by their robotic companion again. Grian knew, though, that his shield couldn’t save them forever, as it was already cracked and ready to shatter. 

Once more, Grian got up, hastily pulling Mumbo up with him. “Which way goes back to the portal?“ He asked quickly. 

  
Mumbo grimaced as he glanced towards the direction behind them. 

  
Grian let out a loud, exasperated groan as he grabbed Mumbo and flew into the air. “We’ll just have to fly over the fortress, then,” he said as he began flying back towards the portal’s area, NPC soon following. “and hope we don’t run into any—” The angel was cut off by an unpleasantly familiar sound, the cry of a ghast firing at them. Quickly, Grian flew out of the way, avoiding it. 

  
“Ghasts.” He groaned. The hermit flew back down to the ground, letting go of Mumbo. He then took off once more to deal with the ghast problem. 

Pulling out his bow, he aimed at the ghast, firing an arrow before the ghast could fire first. The arrow struck, but it didn’t kill. The angel readied another arrow when he heard Mumbo call out to him. Glancing over in Mumbo’s direction he saw another ghast approaching. 

  
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” He yelled, for the second time. Grian began to take aim at the second ghast, when the second suddenly fired at him—knocking him out of the air. Luckily, he was caught by NPC Grian. Otherwise, he would have hit the ground. _Hard. _

The second ghast fired at the two, which was blocked by NPC’s shield—and both of them grimaced as it shattered. Quickly, they ran over to Mumbo, who was ducked down behind a wall of netherrack. 

  
Once more, one of the ghasts fired at them. The fireball was absorbed by the wall, blowing it up into pieces. Though it stopped the first blast, it did nothing against the second coming from the other ghast. Thankfully, Grian was able to shield Mumbo from the hit. On the downside, it hurt like hell. 

_Screw it. _

Wanting no more of this, the angel pulled out his small pouch of glowstone dust. He quickly dragged Mumbo behind a netherrack barrier before untieing the string around the small cloth. 

  
“Grian, what are you—” Mumbo began, before being cut off by Grian, who carefully pushed NPC Grian over next to the hermit. 

"Stay still,” He said, as he scattered the contents around Mumbo and NPC. He then hovered his now glowing hands over the dust, which ignited into a force field around the two. Once that was done, Grian picked up his bow and flew back over to where the ghasts were, ignoring the sounds of his robotic brother calling out to him to come back. 

Landing on the floor, the angel quickly transformed his bow into a spectral bow. He then flung himself back into the air, took aim at one of the ghasts, and fired. He watched as the golden arrow spiraled through the air, giving the ghast a glowing outline as it struck, finishing the mob off. 

  
He then turned around to face the other ghast, doing the same. The first arrow didn’t kill, but Grian then realized that it was also the last arrow he had on him. 

  
He would have resorted to flying right up to the ghast and finishing it off with a sword, but he forgot how much energy shields and spectral bows used up. Another hit and he would come crashing down again. Cursing under his breath, the angel flew back over to Mumbo and NPC, who were still shielded. 

“We’re leaving. _Now.”_ He urged. 

  
Mumbo was still trying to process what was happening when the other came back. Shaking it off, he and NPC flew into the air with their elytras to follow Grian back towards the portal. 

  
Mumbo would have questioned the glowstone and the weird bow and arrows, but he decided that now was certainly not the time. Instead, he continued to trail behind the angel, who was admittedly in a slight panic. 

While flying, Mumbo seemed to notice that he wasn’t able to go as fast as usual. Suddenly, he realized the issue. 

He hadn’t repaired his elytra in a while. 

“Er, Grian?” He called out. “I think my elytra might be about to—” 

He was cut off by the dreaded sound of his elytra snapping as he to begin to fall down towards the dangerous lakes of lava below.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha I'm deleting the old notes here but on this one I mentioned my Tumblr so shameless self advertising my main is @ihavenoconsistentname and my shipping that I might use for writing shit is @clownonhermitblr


	18. A Lot of Explaining To Do

* * *

“Danger!! Mumbo is in danger!!” 

Grian panicked as he heard the alarmed yell of NPC Grian, and the sudden shriek from Mumbo, who was now falling from the sky due to a broken elytra. 

  
Trying to remain calm, Grian focused and teleported below where Mumbo was falling. Quickly, he flew up to catch the falling hermit, teleporting back onto solid ground. Catching his breath for a split second, he made a break for the portal, which was now in sight. 

NPC followed, looking behind them to spot the ghast drawing near them again. “Brother, the big fireball monster is back!” He yelled. Grian grimaced sped up, hoping he could get there before the ghast started firing again. 

Once they reached the portal, Grian heard the cry of a ghast once more as it shot at them. Putting the other down, he pulled out a sword and deflected the fireball. “Through the portal—now!” He yelled to Mumbo as he charged at the ghast. 

  
“Come on, Mumbo!” NPC yelled, flying through the portal, thinking Mumbo would follow—but he didn’t. 

Slashing at the mob, Grian landed all but the finishing blow when he realized Mumbo hadn’t gone through. Quickly, he flew back down to the other and pushed him through the portal.

  
“Go!” He urged, flying back to finish off the ghast. Once the creature was slain, Grian flew right back down and through the portal. 

Flying out the other side of the portal and back into the overworld, Grian sighed heavily. Once he landed, he allowed himself to fall to his knees, exhausted. Looking around, he didn’t see Mumbo at first—he only saw NPC catching his breath near the portal. Turning around, Grian saw the other hermit. Mumbo was sitting on the ground, staring at him, his expression an almost unreadable mix of concern and shock. 

  
Grian tried to ease up, considering he had just felt rather angry and on edge. 

  
Standing up, he went and offered a hand to Mumbo to pull him up and off of the ground. “I guess I’ve got a few things to explain to you.” 

Not bothering to hide his powers anymore, Grian healed up any of the damage Mumbo had taken, not worrying about his own. Both had remained silent for a long time, sitting down in Mumbo’s bunker—and the silence was dreadful. Even NPC was silent, as he had deactivated himself temporarily to repair any minor damages he had taken from blocking all of those fireballs, glowing a soft pink color as he refueled his energy as well. 

  
The angel sighed and leaned back against a wall. 

  
“Are you okay, Grian?” Mumbo asked, his voice gentle. 

  
Grian momentarily glanced at the hermit before averting his gaze. “I’m fine, I just...” He began before shaking his head. Sighing, he pushed himself off of the wall. “Can we go outside?” He asked, to which Mumbo nodded. 

* * *

The two sat out on the grass under the stars for a while, NPC staying down in the bunker to recharge. Neither of them spoke. Every now and then, Mumbo would glance over at the other, though it didn’t last long. 

  
Eventually, Grian got sick of the silence. “I’m sorry, Mumbo,” He began. “For all of this—for being a clueless idiot who can’t even remember to get proper _sleep—”_

  
“Grian...” Mumbo interrupted, but the angel just kept going. 

  
“For being so reckless all the time, even though I should know better—” He hadn’t realized that he was beginning to tear up. 

  
“Grian.” Mumbo tried again. 

  
“For always getting in your way because I just can’t seem to be bothered with even trying to stay out of trouble, I—” 

Once more, he was interrupted, but not by words this time. He was cut off by the feeling of warm arms being wrapped around him, pulling him into a gentle embrace. 

  
He finally broke, sobbing into the other’s shoulder. He just couldn’t help it. He was too overwhelmed by all of it—the getting hurt, not knowing anything, and the fact that he was an angel. He still was afraid for anyone to find out, afraid that they would capture him like they did everyone else in the Aether, afraid that he couldn’t truly trust anyone. 

“It’s okay, Grian. Just calm down. You’re okay,” Mumbo soothed, rubbing small circles in the other’s back. 

  
The angel had eventually started to calm down, though he still couldn’t fully shake off his nerves. After a while, the other hermit released his embrace, allowing Grian to wipe his eyes. Mumbo gently grabbed Grian’s hands and reassuringly ran his thumb over the other’s knuckles. 

  
"I'm sorry, I just—” The angel began, though he couldn’t find the right words to express how he felt. As more tears formed, he tried again. ”I...” 

He shook his head. “I—I can’t...” He sobbed. “I’m sorry.” 

  
And with that, he flew off. He had no clue where he would be going. 

  
He just needed to get away. 

* * *


	19. Pressure

* * *

Ripping through the air, the angel could care less where he was going to end up. All he needed to do was find some place quiet where he could sit for a while. 

  
After flying around aimlessly for around an hour, Grian found himself sitting in a cave that was carved into the side of a mountain. He sat there, staring off into the horizon. 

  
Part of him wished he could just fly right into the sun. He hated being this nervous about it—about telling one of the people he trusts the most here about the fact that he’s an angel from another world.

  
The problem was that he was overthinking it. 

Worst-case scenario? Him telling Mumbo somehow ended in being captured by evil scientists who would perform experiments on him, maybe even kill him.

Was this likely? No. Was he still going to worry that it could happen? Absolutely.

Sure, it was unreasonable, but he couldn’t help it. Not too long ago, he never considered the possibility that someone from another world would invite him into a community of builders, redstoners, etc. Hell, years ago, nobody ever thought it possible for evil people to come and capture all of the angels in the Aether, or even get there in the first place. 

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of elytra gliding through the air towards. He didn’t even have to look up to guess who it was.

“Hey," Mumbo said, his voice soft as he landing on the floor of the cave.

"I thought your elytra broke," Grian mumbled, keeping his gaze on the water below that stretched far beyond his view of the horizon.

"I had a spare," Mumbo replied, sitting down next to him.

  
Mumbo sighed, peering down at the water that the angel's gaze was locked on. The two sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity, though it was only around 10 or so minutes, neither of them moving a muscle.

Giving a small sigh, Mumbo turned to the other, preparing to break the silence.“You know, Gria—” 

“I’m from the Aether.” 

* * *


	20. Secrets Revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This still has such a lame chapter title

* * *

Mumbo stared at Grian, an expression of pure surprise on his face. 

“The...the Aether...? Wait, isn’t that—"

“A world up in the sky,” Grian finished for him. “My home land.”

Mumbo didn’t know what to say, or how to process this information. The _Aether?_ He was from the _Aether?_ He couldn’t help but be surprised by this. Besides, he thought it was just a myth. 

“Wait, so that shield with the glowstone, the weird bow, and the teleporting—” He began, before Grian cut him off again, holding a purple flame in the palm of his hand.

“All Aether powers.” He said. 

  
Mumbo stared at the flame, vibrantly lighting up the cave. “And your wings...” 

“They’re real” Grian shifted his wings slightly. As he did, he realized just how unkempt they were. 

  
Mumbo took a moment to process everything he had just learned. This new guy who was brought to Hermitcraft was _actually_ an angel from the Aether. 

  
_I suppose it explains how little he knew about the overworld,_ he thought. 

“I know it’s weird, and I would have just told everyone at first, but...I was afraid that I would be captured like all of the other angels were. There were some people who had those lab coats on that remind me of _them_ and...” Grian explained, his thoughts eventually drifting away. 

Mumbo laid a reassuring hand on the angel’s shoulder. “I can promise you, that wouldn’t happen. You're safe here. None of us would ever do that to you,” He consoled. 

  
Grian sighed, understanding that he was too busy worrying about the past to realize that he was majorly overthinking it all. 

Once the angel had calmed down fully, Mumbo spoke once more. 

  
"You know, I really do think they're lovely," Mumbo said, gesturing towards the angel's feathered wings. "Even when I thought they were just elytra with feathers on them, I still thought they were neat." He reached out his hand before quickly retracting it. 

  
"Ah—may I?" He asked, catching himself. 

  
Grian hesitated before nodding, allowing the other to touch his wings. Mumbo carefully placed his hand on one of the wings, gently stroking the soft, light feathers. He watched as they gave under his touch before springing softly back up, still remaining in a flat and delicate pattern. Of course, some of those feathers were a bit untidy and dirty, but he didn't care.

The angel mildly fidgeted with his hands as the other hermit admired his wings. 

  
"Pretty cool, right?" He sighed, smirking lazily. "They’re kind of a mess, but that’s because I can't reach them very well, so I can’t really tidy them up. Usually we would have other angels help us, but I can’t do that now, since..." He shook his head, not wanting to finish the sentence. 

  
Mumbo sighed, continuing to gently stroke the angel's wing, almost in a comforting way. "Regardless, they're beautiful," He soothed. 

Grian gave a small chuckle, followed by a soft smile. “It really was dumb how much I was convinced that telling you or anyone else would end badly for me,” He said. 

  
Mumbo patted his shoulder. “It wasn’t completely unreasonable. Besides, it’s not insane to have such low trust or high worries, considering what happened,” He said reassuringly. 

  
Grian sighed. He returned his gaze to the horizon, which now displayed a warm sunset. 

“Still, at least I know I can trust you.” 

* * *


	21. A Chaotic Mess of Feathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still remember I did research on how you preen feathers because I've seen a Tumblr post before where someone was like pEoPle alWaYs pUt brUshinG fEaThers iN wiNgfIcs and they said what an actual preening kit would have and I was like ACK I WANNA BE ACCURATE and apparently I did good

* * *

"Hold still. You're fidgeting," The hermit said as he brushed the dirt off of the angel's wings.

"Sorry," Grian mumbled. 

His wings were a _mess_, considering the fact that he can't easily take care of them himself, and Mumbo volunteered to help preen them for him. Granted, he didn't know _anything_ about preening feathers, so he was trying his best.

"Don't you have NPC who could help you?" Mumbo questioned at one point. Their robotic friend was leaned up against a wall, resting. 

  
"He doesn't know how to preen feathers. I never taught him since he isn't an angel. Plus, I never thought that there would be anything preventing me from having the help of other angels to do this." Grian explained, glancing at the resting NPC.

  
Mumbo gave a small sigh, looking over the angel's wings to see if he missed any dirt or excess feathers. He also checked to make sure there were no feathers that needed imping or other damaged parts. Thankfully, it seemed there were none of those things. All his feathers were aligned and looked fine.

  
Glancing back, Grian spread his wings out a bit, fluffing up the feathers and shaking them a bit to make sure there was nothing left to remove or fix. 

"Should I wash them as well?" Mumbo asked. To be fair, they were still a bit dirty, but Grian shook his head. 

"They should be fine. Thank you."

While Mumbo was putting the few supplies back in the preening kit, there was a small whirring noise off to the side. Glancing over, the angel saw that his brother had woken up. The lights in his eyes blinked on and off a few times before staying on.

"Feeling better, NPC?" Grian asked, to which the other nodded. He hadn't taken much damage, but Grian still wanted to make sure he was fine.

"What about _you_, brother?" NPC tilted his head. Grian gave a thumbs up with a small grin. After a few days, he felt much better. Still a little beaten from their trip to the Nether, not to mention the previous phantom attack, but he was better.

"Now, then. Can we agree to not get into anymore trouble, Grian? You need to be much more careful," Mumbo chided. 

The redstoner always reminded Grian about how reckless he acts, but he still manages to be patient with him. "I know, and I'm trying." The angel sighed. Maybe he could stay out of trouble by working on his base again.

* * *

  
Well, as it turns out, Grian decided that was boring, and he had other things in mind.

Mumbo stared in horror as he heard nothing but the sounds of clucking in his bunker, with the sight of chickens everywhere. Absolutely _everywhere_.

"What in the..." The hermit began, then he heard faint giggling coming from outside. Turning around, he climbed up the ladder to find a certain angel standing there, snickering as he lifted a chicken mask off his face.

"When I said_ 'stay out of trouble',_ this is _not_ what I meant!" Mumbo exclaimed.

Grian stood there, holding an egg as he giggled mischievously. "It wasn't me, it was the man in the chicken costume!" The angel laughed.

Mumbo grumbled slightly. To be fair, it was better than Grian getting hurt again, but now he had chickens everywhere. "Clean this up or I'm never letting you near my base again," He said.

"Aw, you're no fun." Grian whined, still smirking, but he went down to get rid of the chickens anyway.

Mumbo sighed. _What am I ever going to do with you, Grian_? He thought to himself. Of course, he would let the angel have his fun, but that was at his own expense. 

Besides, what if that fun turned into something much more chaotic? He told Xisuma he would watch over Grian, making sure he didn't get into too much trouble, but that was difficult to do without limiting him too much.

_I guess we'll just have to wait and see, he thought. And, hopefully, he won't do anything too drastic._

Mumbo shook his head. No, surely Grian wouldn't cause too much trouble with his little pranks. The angel was troublesome, but he knew how to control himself. Mumbo was sure he would be just fine.

But, _boy_, was he wrong.

* * *


	22. Curiosity Killed the Cat, Not the Angel

* * *

Nothing too strange ever seemed to happen to the hermit. 

And still, nothing strange was happening.

However, he _did_ find it rather strange that there was a sign sitting lonely in the center of his base on the main floor.

"Who do you think left it there?" 

Grian turned his head to see his mechanical friend walking over to him, curiosity glowing in his eyes. 

"I'm not sure. All it says is to go to the 'Queen Mary Ghost Ship', but I don't know where that is," The angel replied. 

Studying the sign and seemingly processing the information, NPC Grian's face suddenly lit up.

"Cleo!" He exclaimed, causing Grian to jump slightly. 

It took him a moment to register who the NPC was talking about. "What about Cleo?"

"Pirate ship! Cleo has a pirate ship base. Maybe that's what the sign is talking about," NPC Grian explained. "I don't think she's the one who left the sign, though." 

The angel glanced at the sign, considering both it's message and the information recieved from the other. "Do you think we should check it out? It might be dangerous, but it might also be nothing." 

NPC shrugged, then smiled. "It can be an adventure!" 

Grian chuckled, ruffling the smaller one's hair. "Alright—we can make it an adventure."

* * *

  


If the thought of a ghost ship wasn't already spooky enough, then the sight of the thing certainly was. 

And at night? Even more bonechilling. 

Thankfully, the flight over wasn't so bad. No phantoms to deal with, no other mobs—no problem. 

Once the two landed, they stood on the deck for a moment and glanced around. The ship was massive, almost an exact replica of Cleo's pirate ship base, except this one was—well, ghost-like. Parts of the wood were made to look rotten, chunks of it replaced with dark stained glass, and there were cobwebs everywhere—it certainly fit the aesthetic of a ghoul. And seeing it at night gave it an extra spooky atmosphere. 

Grian was still in the process of taking in the beauty of the build when his companion suddenly made a whirring noise to get his attention. Glancing over, NPC Grian turned and pointed.

The angel looked in the direction he was pointing. Sure enough, there were a couple more signs there. One lead him over to some sort of "treasure room".

The other was placed on a wall next to an item frame containing a key. 

_'Spin the key three times,'_ it read.

Seeing no point in doing anything other than what the sign said—not to mention he was still curious—the angel did as the sign told. He gently spinned the key once, listening for sounds. Nothing. Same with the second spin.

On the third spin, once more, he heard nothing. 

Grian glanced back NPC Grian, who stood back a bit to keep watch for mobs. He shrugged, not knowing what else to do. 

"I guess maybe it was just a prank?" Grian questioned. He then sighed and turned to walk out of the small room—

—When all of a sudden, the floor dropped beneath him. In an instant, he was dropped down into a hole beneath the ship, hearing the alarmed yell of his NPC companion.

Quickly, he scrambled to his feet, looking around frantically. "What the—" 

The sound of mobs growling cut him off, along with what was probably the most terrifying zombie he's ever seen. 

It wasn't just one—multiple zombies surrounded him—but there was something off about the zombie in front of him that caused waves of terror to shoot through his body. 

It wasn't just any ol' zombie. It was a zombie with a player head on it, one belonging to the person he feared the most.

_Doc._

The sudden face of Doc appearing right in front of him froze the angel with fear. His blood ran cold as his head started spinning. He was in a state of total panic—he couldn't even hear the gurgling of the zombies thrashing around and clawing at him. He could only hear the rush of his own blood, overpowering his hearing and blocking out the violent sounds of the mobs, along with the cries for help coming from the other up on the deck. 

He was becoming dizzy. All his thoughts jumbled into an inaudible mess of fear. 

His senses were overwhelmed by the terror plaguing him and the violent pounding of blood in his ears, so much so that he couldn't even see properly anymore. 

He saw saw a blurred figure dropping down in front of him. Then the flash of a blade. 

And that was all he remembered before he blacked out.

* * *


	23. Zombie Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And again this is the part where the prank war events arent 100% following canon

* * *

_"...an...Grian...Grian!"_

"Brother!"

  


The angel jolted awake with panic still leftover from the previous incident. Immediately after, he winced. He didn't realize that he was covered in claw marks and zombie bites—which was probably why he was laying in a bed right now.

"Hey, hey, easy—take it easy, now," A voice told him, laying him back down. 

It took Grian a moment to see that it was Joe who was talking to him. Glancing around, he also saw the face of NPC Grian—which was the voice that woke him up—along with Cleo, who had her back turned to them as she grabbed what appeared to be potions. 

"Quite the beating you took. Lucky for you, I've got some potions here for you," Cleo said, taking the glowing pink potions from the brewing stand. 

  
Although Grian had just been attacked by zombies, the sight of the zombified hermit didn't unsettle him—mainly due to the fact that it was more of the face he saw on the zombie, rather than the zombie itself.

Without having him move, Cleo began soaking a small cloth with the potion. "May sting a bit," She noted, then began gently dabbing Grian's wounds with it. He grimaced slightly at first, but it wasn't that bad. 

"That was a nasty trap you fell into. Whoever put it there must have really been out to get you, huh?" Joe pondered, glancing out the window at the other ship. It was still just as ghostly with its dark, tattered sails gently fluttering in the wind. 

Grian sighed. "Thing is, I don't know who would have placed it. And why at Cleo's base of all things?" 

  
Cleo looked up, her eyes moving to the ship outside.

"Maybe it was a trap placed for Cleo. Maybe somebody changed the signs on it," Joe suggested. "Though, who would want to prank Cleo then?"

"I'm tellin' ya, Joe, it was that _fleabag_ Ren!" Cleo erupted. "All because, _what_, I poked around with _one_ sign and made it say 'Ren' instead of 'Iskall'? It was just a stupid chicken statue, too!" She stood up, throwing her hands in the air and grumbling her way over to retrieve more potions. 

"The problem is—I don't know who changed the signs on the ship or left that sign for you, Grian. Have you pranked anyone lately?" 

Aside from throwing chickens around Mumbo's base, he hadn't. The angel shook his head. "No. I've got no clue who it could have been." 

All of a sudden, NPC Grian stamped his foot loudly and growled. Grian noticed his eyes were a bit red. Concerned, he stood up, extending his hand to place it on the other's shoulder. "Hey, are you alri—"

"There was no reason for them to try and kill my brother! No reason!" The NPC yelled. "They wanna hurt him just because he's different! It's not fair!" 

Grian rested his hands on NPC's shoulders. "Hey, hey, calm down—" he moved his hand to wipe away a few of the angry tears that were streaming down his brother's face. "It's okay," He soothed.

"Who is 'they', NPC? Are you talking about whoever tricked Grian?" Joe asked. 

  
NPC Grian wiped his face with his sleeve. "The scary man with the robot face. The one Grian doesn't like," He whined. "They try to scare him because he's different." 

"Different how? What do you mean? Like how he's new here?" Cleo questioned, but Grian waved it away. 

  
"It's—nevermind. It's not important," He said. "You mean Doc, right, bud? The one with the robotic arm and the lab coat?" 

NPC nodded. He then buried his face in Grian's shoulder, pulling him into a tight embrace. "He's scary. I don't like him. I don't like how he tries to hurt you," He mumbled. 

Grian sighed. "Well, we don't know for sure that it was him, right? Besides, if it was, wouldn't he have just targeted me directly instead?" 

"But you heard Cleo! It was _Ren_ who tried to go after her, not him." The NPC objected.

"Well, Ren and Doc are buddies, aren't they? Maybe Doc had something to do with it as well. Besides, wasn't his face on one of the zombies?" Joe interjected. 

Cleo scoffed. "This gets us nowhere. All we know is someone tried to prank me and it ended up getting Grian."

The three were silent. They really didn't know what to make of it. "All I'm saying—" Cleo said, tossing another potion to Grian. "is that we don't know who to retaliate against for sure yet. Even if it was Ren, it's likely that someone else was involved." 

"So how do you propose we retaliate?" Grian asked. 

Cleo pulled a cheeky grin. "We prank them back, of course. And we hit them where it hurts." She walked over, placing a hand on Grian's shoulder. 

"And we hit them _hard."_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot about NPC Grian's little outburst omg


	24. We're Doing 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵, Now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have nothing to add for when they're actually robbing the shit

* * *

"R-robbing the..._what_ now...?"

Cleo let out an exasperated sigh. "The stock exchange! We're robbing the stock exchange!" 

Grian glanced at the masks in the zombie hermit's hand, then back at her. "But..why?" 

Once more, she sighed. "We're retaliating, Grian. They hit _you_ where it hurts—which was your whole body—" Grian grimaced. "—and now we hit _them_ where it hurts! By robbing them!" 

"But isn't that kind of against the rules?" Grian asked. 

  
Cleo snorted. "Rules! There's no rules against robbing them. Besides, we'll only _hide_ the diamonds, not _steal_ them " She explained. 

The angel shook his head. "I still think this is a great way to really get us killed," He muttered. 

Cleo gave him a quick nudge with her elbow. "Ah, come on. A little chaos never hurt anyone. Besides, we've got someone else here to help us out. Not Joe, though. He chickened out." She gave a quick, sarcastic laugh. "Said something about_ 'morals'._" She snorted.

Grian was about to ask who when he heard the whooshing of what he assumed was an elytra. Then, he saw a figure in red approaching them. They had almost golden hair with two red horns sticking out, wearing a red and white striped shirt and a vest over it. Looking closely, Grian noticed they had a tail, and those weren't elytra he heard—they were wings.

"Wassup! Ready to rob the stock exchange?" The hermit exclaimed as they landed in front of the two, giving a toothy grin. 

"Hell yeah! Though I'm not so sure about G over here," Cleo said, turning to Grian. "This is Tango. He'll be helping us out here," She introduced.

"Mainly because she's got an I.O.U note on me, but that's beside the point. A little chaos can do you good, no?" Tango chuckled. He extended a hand to Grian, though it was balled into a fist. The angel assumed it was for a fist bump, so he gave him one. 

"Exactly what I said! Now come on, put on these masks." Cleo said, tossing them both a mask. The mask she gave Tango had the face of another female hermit on it, which was False. 

As Grian looked at the mask he was given, he grimaced. Any other mask would have been fine, but this one resembled the face of Mumbo. "I don't know if I want to wear this..."

"What, don't wanna pass the blame onto Mumbo?" Cleo asked. She then shrugged, handing him a different one. This time, it had the face of a slightly less familiar hermit—that hermit being Scar. 

Cleo then put on her own mask, which had the face of Joe on it. _Go figure_, Grian thought. _They seem to be close buddies._

Beside them, Tango seemed to be bouncing with excitement. He then clapped his hands. "Come on! Let's rob this thing already!" His red eyes were gleaming, and Grian found it odd how excited he was to commit a crime. 

Cleo laughed, leading the two into the building. "Alright, so heres the plan..."

* * *

  


"How did you know the code for that thing?" Grian questioned. The trio was now inside the vault, having taken the elevator up to it after Cleo inserted some sort of code to get in.

Tango shrugged. "I've seen them put it in before," He said, earning a face palm from the angel. 

In front of them, Cleo hit a note block, which triggered some sort of redstone. The sand curtain in front of them dropped, revealing piles of diamonds. "Ready to nab all these diamonds, boys?" Cleo grinned, turning back to them.

"We're just going to hide them somewhere else, right?" Grian asked. Sure, he was a prankster, but robbery was different. 

"Yeah, yeah. It would be awesome to keep all these for ourselves, but we're not _monsters_." Cleo glanced at Tango. "Well, he and I _are_ monsters in a way, I suppose—though, 'mob' is a better word. No offense ,Tango."

Tango snorted, tail lashing momentarily. "None taken." 

Before Grian could question it, the other two began pulling out shulker boxes and filling them with diamonds. 

Reluctantly, the angel joined them, though he took much less. Even if it was just a retaliation prank, he wasn't very keen on doing it. "Doc is going to kill me for this, you know," He muttered. 

"Don't worry, we won't let him kill you. Besides, it's not Grian, Tango, and Cleo robbing them, it was 'False,' 'Joe' and 'Scar' robbing them!" Tango chuckled. 

* * *

  


"Alright boys, I'd say our mission here is done! Anything else we wanna mess with in here?" Cleo asked as the trio stood out in the lobby. 

The diamonds were hidden away somewhere within the stock exchange, and they were pretty much done with their "prank".

"Oh! What about the office up there?" Cleo suggested.

Looking up, Grian spotted an office area on an upper floor. Quickly, they flew up to it, and inside was a desk, a few bookshelves, and some sort of bush next to the desk. 

"Ooo, mess up his bush, Grian." Tango smiled mischievously. "Doc _loves_ that bush. Mess it up. It'll be payback for the zombies."

Grian looked at the hermit hesitantly before stepping into the office. He walked over to the desk and examined the bush. "How exactly do I, er, 'mess it up'?" 

Tango shrugged. "Just ruffle the leaves up and maybe pluck a few out?"

Not having much idea on what to do, Grian tried moving the leaves around a bit. He found that the branches were movable and began twisting a few together. After messing around with it, the bush became a wrangled mess of leaves and branches.

"Nice. Alright, let's split," The other called to him. 

With that, the trio of what Grian would call criminals fled from the stock exchange. Cleo was the quickest to take off, flying back to her pirate ship base with her elytra. Before Tango left, however, the angel stopped him.

"What's up, G?" Tango asked, tail flicking with curiosity. 

"Well, er, I wanted to ask you a question," Grian responded. "I kind of noticed you have a tail. And wings. And horns. You know?" 

  
Tango gave a brief nod. 

Sighing, the angel continued. "Well—I wanted to ask, what are you? I mean, you don't seem to be entirely _'human',_ but—"

"Demon!" Tango cut him off, grinning.

  
Grian paused, partially confused about the hermit's happy expression. "A...demon?" 

The other nodded. "Yeah, you know, a demon! Not the bad kind, obviously, but I'm from the Nether. A couple of the guys here found me and decided to bring me back here and convince X to let me stay. Have you met Zedaph and Impulse?" 

Grian shook his head. He hadn't met nor heard of those two. 

  
"Well, they're my teammates! And my best buds. You should meet them sometime." 

"Wait, teammates? Is there some sort of team thing here?" The angel asked. 

  
"Not necessarily, but some people have formed teams with other people. There's the Convex, Team ZIT—my team—there's Team UGS, the NHO—you get the point," Tango explained. 

Grian would have asked more questions, but the sun was coming up. "We should probably get going now. Thank you for answering my questions, Tango," He said. 

The demon grinned. "Anytime! Get home safely." Tango then began to walk into a clearer area to take off, but he paused. "Oh, and Grian?"

Grian looked at him as he spoke without turning his head. "I know it can be nerve wracking to join a community when you have these kinds of differences. You're not from around here, and it's scary when there's people who you think might hurt you."

He then looked back at the angel. "But you're never alone here, and you don't have to hide. We're all different in some way. We just have to embrace it. Some day, you'll get more comfortable around these guys, and you'll see that they're your friends no matter who or what you are. And no one here is going to hurt you. You're safe here." 

Grian stared at the demon, tears welling in his eyes. Tango gave him a friendly smile, giving him a quick wave and taking off, leaving him alone there to take in everything he said. 

_"You're never alone here."_

* * *


	25. I Think There's A Sale Going On?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small reminder as I'm editing this that Wels goes by they/them in this story because elf androgyny or whatever lol

* * *

The angel stretched as he arose from bed. Flying straight up through his base and out into the sky, Grian breathed in the fresh, morning air. He gave a content sigh.

Despite the previous shenanigans a few days ago, along with the previous zombie mishaps, he felt great. 

Maybe today would be a much better morning.

_[Mumbo fell from a high place.]_

  
Or not.

The angel grimaced. Quickly, he flew over to the other's island, which now had an almost complete globular base planted on it. As he landed, Grian saw the hermit picking up the items he dropped when he fell. He appeared to be grumbling to himself.

"Are you alright, Mumbo?" The angel asked, helping him retrieve his things. 

  
Mumbo shook his head. "Yeah, it's nothing. Just this damn elytra failing again," He muttered.

Once the hermit had all his belongings, he sighed. "Grian, can you do me a quick favor?" He then handed Grian a few diamonds and pointed towards the shopping district. "Can you go buy some more rockets? I'm running low, and I need them to fly."

"Oh, that's what those are for. I've been wondering why everyone has them," Grian said. 

  
The redstoner chuckled. "What did you think they were for? I know you have wings so you didn't know, but I can't think of any other use for them."

Grian shook his head, taking off towards the shopping district. 

* * *

  


Now, he knew it would be rather easy to find the rocket shop, considering he's seen it before. 

But he didn't expect it to be covered in sales signs that were practically shoved in your face.

"What the..." Grian mumbled. He knew the signs weren't supposed to be there. Besides, there were way too many of them.

From around the corner, he heard a few voices. Two of them were familiar, but one he didn't recognize. The problem, however, was with one of the voices he did recognize. 

Immediately, he ducked behind one of the pillared up signs in front of the shop. 

"You think we should add more signs, Doc?" The unfamiliar voice asked.

He then heard the deep voice of the cyborg hermit reply. "Nah, this should be enough. Besides, it's day time. Other hermits might be coming over here soon."

"Right. Don't wanna get caught, do we?" He heard a chuckle from the voice he recognized as Xisuma. 

"I'd say we're done here. Let's head back to the stock exchange."

"I'll meet you guys there in a minute. You two go on ahead."

Then, he heard a few rockets going off, and he flinched. He waited a few seconds before peering out from behind the pillar. He thought all three would be gone, but the hermit he didn't recognize remained. 

The angel was about to try and sneak away when an arrow suddenly whizzed past his face.

Looking around, he saw a skeleton hiding in the shadows, about to fire another arrow at him. He yelped as he dodged the second arrow. He then covered his mouth, but his position was already given away. 

The unidentified hermit looked at him before locking their eyes on the skeleton, pulling out a sword and charging at it. Grian heard the clashing of the sword against the bones of the mob. 

"Cheeky skeleton." The stranger mumbled, putting away their sword. "It didn't hit you, did it?" 

  
Grian didn't know how to respond—partially due to the fact that he was staring at someone wearing a blue sheep mask. "I...uh..."

They tilted their head in confusion until they understood why he was silent. "Oh!" The hermit removed the mask, shaking the hair out of their face. 

  
Now that there was nothing blocking their face, Grian saw that they had long, golden hair with the back part of it pulled messily into a bun, along with light deer-like freckles and...pointy ears? And Grian couldn't tell their gender—they were too androgynous looking.

"Sorry about that." They chuckled. They then walked over and extended a hand. Grian took it, almost shuddering at how cold the metal gauntlet was. "Name's Wels—they/them, by the way. How long have you been standing here?" 

"I, uh, haven't been here long. I was just getting some rockets for Mumbo, but—" Grian began explaining, pulling out the few diamonds Mumbo gave him.

"Ah, you don't wanna get any rockets in there right now," Wels interjected, their voice lowering to an unneeded whisper. The angel tilted his head. 

They smiled. "Let's just say those one's aren't very friendly. They explode into colors. Not very pleasant when you're trying to fly." 

Wels fished around in a satchel resting at their side and pulled out a few stacks of regular rockets. "Here you go! You can put the diamonds away and take these ones back to Mumbo." They grinned, patting him on the shoulder. 

Grian hesitated before taking the rockets and tucking the diamonds away. "Thank you. Are you sure you don't want the—"

"No diamonds needed, pal," Wels cut him off. "I didn't quite catch your name, but I know you're new here. I'd say telling me that would suffice as payment."

Grian almost felt nervous about how friendly the hermit seemed. However, nothing seemed intimidating or off about them, so he didn't worry about it.

"I'm Grian. I'm from—uh..." He trailed off. _What am I supposed to say..._

"The Aether," Wels finished for him. Immediately, Grian's eyes widened as he looked at them. They only seemed to have a calm smile on their face, no signs of danger. 

"I can tell. You've got wings. I know an angel when I see one. Besides, I can sense the aura." Wels shook their head. "I'm not from around here either." 

"Where are you from?" Grian asked. He figured he would ask about the other things later. 

  
Wels flicked their ears. "Twilight Forest. I'm a wood elf," They answered. 

"I've never heard of that place before." The angel said. "What's it like?" 

  
Wels gave him a meaningful look. "Absolutely enchanting. It's covered in tall, dark trees with moss and fireflies everywhere. There's plenty of deer, rams, a few large monsters if you poke around enough. And the sun never rises—it's always night time there. Hence the name 'Twilight Forest'."

Grian tried to envision it in his head, and the image he saw was indeed beautiful. "It sounds really nice." He smiled. 

  
Wels gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. "It is. But it's nice here, too. I've got more friends here." 

Suddenly, Wels' ears flicked and froze, but they shook it off and quickly—but gently—shoved Grian behind the pillar.

"Wha—" The angel began, confused and not knowing if he should be frightened.

"Shh—" Wels cut him off. Grian then understood why—he heard the sounds of rockets going off once again, along with an elytra swooping in.

"Still coming, Wels?" A familiar voice asked. Grian let out a shaky sigh of relief to hear that it wasn't Doc. 

The elf replied, "Yeah, yeah. I was just busy." 

Xisuma seemed to notice a white feather or two sticking out from behind the pillar. "Is that what's been keeping you?" He questioned, pointing to the feathers.

Knowing that it was only Xisuma, Grian moved from behind the pillar. Even still, he shifted nervously. 

Wels gave him a comforting smile. "It's alright, Grian. No Doc here, just X." 

The angel glanced around once again before letting himself relax. _They knew I was afraid of Doc..._ Grian thought. _Though, I guess they could sense that too._

  
"Well, I think we wouldn't want to keep him waiting much longer, right Wels?" Xisuma said, pointing back in the direction where he flew in from. 

The elf smiled. "Yeah, probably not." They gave Grian a quick pat on the shoulder. "And you probably wouldn't want to keep Mumbo waiting any longer." 

  
Grian suddenly remembered. "Oh, right! I forgot." He looked at the jumbled up rockets in his hands. "I'll go get these back to Mumbo now." 

"It was nice meeting you, Grian! Stay safe," Wels told him. Behind them, Xisuma had already taken off, as Grian was about to.

"Oh, and one more thing." 

Grian paused, turning back to the elf. 

Wels smiled warmly. "It's not as scary and intimidating as it may seem out here, okay? Sure, there's a few moments where you might get caught up in a fight with mobs or you might get startled by someone."

Then, as if perfectly timed, an arrow whizzed right past the elf's face. 

  
They sighed, turning towards the skeleton that fired it, which was hiding in the shade. "Do you mind?" They yelled, pulling out a bow and shooting the skeleton dead. Or, double-dead. Grian held back a slight laugh.

They sighed, walking over, placing a hand on Grian's shoulder. "My point is, it's not all that bad. And you don't have to be afraid. No one here has to be your enemy—though, I suppose I'd be a bit of a hypocrite to say." They chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Grian asked. 

  
Wels sighed, shaking their head. "Last season, you know what I did? I declared war on the nHo. That's Etho, Doc, Beef and Bdubs, along with some kind of gang of scientists. They don't do much now, but they acted all high and mighty before. It wasn't a huge war, primarily just Biffa and I rallying support against them and looking for 'justice', plus we raided some laboratories."

"But that's a story for another day. Quite a long one as well." Wels chuckled. "You should probably get back to Mumbo now."

Grian watched for a moment as Wels began walking away. He looked at the rockets in his hands, thinking about the elf's words.

"Case in point? We'll all protect you. If not, I most certainly will," Wels called back to him. With one last smile, they turned around. "I am a knight, after all. I fight for my people." 

The angel looked at them before giving a smile. Wels' smile grew for a moment, then they waved and took off on their elytra. 

Grian sighed, watching them fly away. Glancing at the rockets once more, he made his way back to Mumbo's base.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way!! I wanna go over the respawn mechanics real quick.
> 
> There's a low chance that a hermit won't respawn, resulting in a perma-death, though they could technically be resurrected through some odd magic but no one knows how to perform it (except for Wels because they're the only one capable of using actual magic, being an elf—fun fact! Wels lies about what kind of elf they are :) )
> 
> So basically you're likely to come back 90% of the time but on the off chance you don't respawn you're dead-dead. The only way to guarantee a respawn is through a totem of undying charm. They're extremely rare to find but they don't ever break or wear out, and the Convex managed to stockpile some. The only way you could really lower your chance of not coming back is if you don't have a respawn point, which can be added or removed by an admin or you can ser it yourself basically just by sleeping in a bed and not moving it from that spot because then the world acknowledges that's where you wake up at so if that's set it knows where to wake you up at, if not you'll either not come back because it has no idea where to place you or you'll wake up somewhere random but nearby.


	26. Here We Go Again

* * *

Standing on top of his base, Grian was glad it was finally complete. 

Well, for the most part, at least. There was still some work to be done, but the main structure was finished.

Regardless, it finally gave him some time to do other things, though he wasn't entirely sure _what_.

Breathing in the fresh air, the angel took a giant leap off his tower, letting his wings unfurl and catch the wind beneath them. 

It was always relaxing to fly around. It gave him some time to think, as well. One thing that had been on his mind was the incident at the shopping district.

_"So they immediately knew you were an angel?" Mumbo had understood after Grian told him about it. _

_Sighing, he leaned against the chests piled up behind him. "Yeah, I got worried for a second. I mean, they _were_ with Doc. I wasn't sure if I was going to be safe with them knowing, but it seems like they're really nice."_

_Mumbo smiled, patting his shoulder reassuringly. "Trust me, Wels is a caring person. They care a lot about everyone and try their hardest to protect people. They wouldn't harm you in any way. I'm sure they wouldn't let Doc do anything either."_

While it wasn't entirely reassuring, Grian felt a little bit better about it. Besides, Wels didn't seem even a little bit intimidating. They seemed to be awfully upbeat and cheery, not to mention incredibly friendly. Maybe he could even talk to them again.

For now, he decided he didn't need to think about it. 

Grian didn't entirely know what to do with his spare time that he now had. NPC Grian was sticking around Mumbo to watch him build, so he was on his own. 

He figured he could relax a bit, maybe fly around the place and find a nice empty field or something.

And that's exactly what he did—he flew around until he found a nice spot to relax. 

A simple field with a few flowers speckled here and there. Even a few bees nearby, which he's never seen before. 

It was fascinating to watch the little bees work. They danced around each other, buzzing happily. Little bits of pollen fell in an occasional trail behind them as they flew back to their nests. One even came over to inspect the flower that Grian was holding.

They were quite adorable, maybe even cuter than the baby turtles he's played around with before. There were even a couple baby bees in the bunch. 

Which, for the record, were _extra_ cute.

With a deep sigh, Grian let his wings unfurl on the cool grass as he laid down on the ground. Closing his eyes, the angel let the gentle breeze run through his hair and pass over him. 

It was a beautiful day outside, as it has been for a while. He was glad to finally get a moment of peace to enjoy it. 

He even stayed there until the sun began to set. And, not being a big fan of mobs, he headed swiftly home, trying to get back to his base before it got too dark. 

* * *

Once he finally reached his destination, he landed on top of his tower. As much as he wanted to get inside already, he had to take a stretch break. Flying got exhausting after a while—especially over long distances.

As he was stretching, however, he heard a familiar screeching sound. 

_Phantoms._

Quickly, Grian pulled out his sword. He would have just dove down into his base, but he was afraid they would follow him in.

Positioning himself, the angel slashed at the incoming beast as soon as he caught sight of it, causing it to hiss and momentarily back off. As it did, another appeared next to it, charging at Grian just as the other did.

When he raised his sword again, however, he felt another phantom charge at him from behind, knocking him forward. 

Then, once more, as soon as he got up, the first phantom charged again. He dodged out of the way, but not without nearly falling off the edge.

_Okay, maybe we aren't getting up_, he decided. 

Waiting for one of the beasts to charge again, Grian kept his eyes on the closest ones. As soon as one came at him, he slashed at it. 

Again and again, but he only took out one of them. 

_Ugh._

Standing up, he prepared to take care of the remaining two—

—But then something came rushing in.

At first, Grian could only register it as some sort of bluish blur across the sky. 

But once he was able to see it, he saw a figure kicking a phantom mid-air, landing on the edge of the platform, crushing the phantom beneath their foot. 

Without hesitation, they pulled out a sword, charging straight at the other phantom, killing it swiftly with a violent slash.

Grian stood there, trying to process what just happened as the stranger put their sword away.

The part that surprised him wasn't the fact that this person came out of nowhere.

Not even the fact that they seemed to be made of blue slime.

No, what really shocked him was what he saw on that person.

_They had angel wings._

And, noticing his surprise, the stranger turned to him and smiled.

"Oughta be more careful with these phantoms out here." They chuckled. "They can leave some nasty scratches and bites."

"You..." the angel was still at a loss for words. He only stood there as the other took a few steps closer.

"You seem a little confused, huh?" They laughed again, extending a hand. "My name's Jevin. You're Grian, right?"

Accepting the other's handshake, Grian nodded. 

Jevin smiled widely. "Nice to meet you." He glanced at Grian's wings.

"I've never met a real angel before." 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys fun fact I drew Wels as a princess earlier, tweeted it at him because it's a joke from his streams and his response was "dear god what have you done"
> 
> THIS IS ONE OF THE ONLY OLD NOTES IM KEEPING


	27. Up to No Good Again, Huh?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real quick a couple things 
> 
> 1- While I don't care about this being seen as ship or not I'm gonna say if you wanna see other ships in this and not just Grumbo? Fucking knock yourself out because I might honestly write in things that you could see as ship with other characters 
> 
> 2- I'm sorry this is taking so long to update I have to think of shit to continue the story AHFJAJFN
> 
> 3- I'm also sorry that I got lazy with the part where Grian tours the prank forgive me I really didn't know what to write since his reaction isn't even entirely shown in Cleo's episode and I didn't wanna go digging around in vids to try my best to replicate it I swear I'm trying but just this once it's really bad HSJFJSNFA
> 
> 4- You can also see ships in the background with this and a clear ass example of one you could see here is Jevin and Wels lol  
But ofc y'all don't have to take it as ship but let's be honest I'm pretty sure all of my readers on this one interpret the story as ship
> 
> I've thought about just changing it to be plain ship but if I'm gonna let you decide which ships you wanna see in it maybe you wanna see one other than Grumbo so I'm not gonna just straight up make that the canon ship in the story 
> 
> I think that's all I got 
> 
> This has taken me so long because I've been having writers block for this story, I've been playing ACNL and now I also have ACNH (animal crossing new leaf and new horizons) so I'm sjfks doing that, I've been sleeping literally all fucking day for forever because quarentine and school is cancelled though it fucks with my work, and I've been like always just watching Wels stream messing with him on Twitter and shit with stream jokes like the god damn fairy one a few days ago
> 
> Excuses excuse blah blah but I know y'all don't mind even tho more updates would be nice 
> 
> AO3 formatting feels so nice after you've been trying to format text on fucking Wattpad where it's atrocious especially the font
> 
> Alright I'll shuddup now take the chapter

* * *

Grian silently trailed behind the slimy blue figure, watching as his wings twitched every now and again. 

He thought about what Jevin had said to him before they left.

_"I've never seen a real angel before."_

What did he mean? Certainly he was an angel, too. The wings told him. So what did he mean by that?

"Um, what exactly did you need me for again?" Grian asked, still unsure of where they were going. 

Jevin glanced back at him as they continued walking. "Cleo needed me to bring you here and take a look at a prank she set up with Joe and I. Told me she wanted your opinion on it." He chuckled, facing forward again. "Guess it was good timing. You're lucky I came to get you when I did." 

Grian smiled. "Yeah." He glanced around, partially scanning for mobs. "Who exactly is this prank for?" 

"Impulse. Since he was one of the people attempting to catch her with that nasty ship prank, she recruited me and Joe to get back at him." 

"I see."

"In fact, here it is."

The two came up to what looked like a dock area sat on the edge of rough landscapes. Nearby, a ship sat in the water, and further up the dock stood the zombie pirate they'd come to meet up with.

"Got him right here, Cleo!" Jevin called to her, pointing back at the angel.

"Good, good!" She clapped. Her face lit up mischievously as she placed a hand on Grian's shoulder. "Now then, Grian!" She swung him around, slinging her arm around his neck. 

"I want you to take a little tour through this lovely little hall of atonement we've created for Impulse. It won't kill you or anything, so give it a shot. Obviously I wanted someone who wasn't involved in the building to tour it beforehand, and you were the one who ended up getting hurt by the prank, so I figured you should do it." She explained.

Grian glanced at Jevin nervously, though he only shrugged at him. Sighing, the angel nodded. "Alright, then."

"Perfect!" Cleo cheered, releasing him. She lead him over to the entrance, instructing him to place his belongings into a chest. Once that was done, he entered the door.

Immediately, he was plunged into darkness. Around the room, multiple swords hung from the ceiling and on the walls. Cleo was there to guide him through, listening to his feedback.

Going through all the rooms, there were multiple signs containing words from Joe. Down a staircase, there were dispensers that would later contain special Curse of Binding armor. At the end was a simple water elevator to let Impulse out.

Grian hummed as he thought about all of it. "So you don't even get him?"

"Well, we get him with words—Joe's words, to be exact." Cleo chuckled. 

"I think we should add more to it."

"Like what?"

"Well," Grian dug through his bag, pulling out a spare bucket. "How about lava at the end? He tried to kill you and nearly did kill me, so why not kill him? He can come back, after all."

Cleo's expression grew mischievous once more. "Ooo, I like that idea. Let's do it. Joe wouldn't be okay with it, but we don't have to tell him!" She grinned. 

Grian glanced around the terrain until he spotted lava flowing from the side of a hill nearby. Quickly, he flew over and scooped up the hot molten rock into the bucket, being careful not to spill it as he flew back.

Cleo pulled out a few stone blocks to place around the spot where the water stopped, along with something to block the water's flow. 

Carefully, the angel poured the lava into the hole, covering the top with more stone blocks. "There, now it's perfect." He said, putting away the bucket. 

"And we can't tell Joe or else he would be pretty sore with us." Cleo chuckled. "I'm not so sure about Jevin."

Grian shrugged. The two walked back around the small trail wrapped around the edge of the hill, leading back to the entrance. Jevin was leaning against the wall, tapping his foot and humming.

"We're back!" Cleo called to him. 

"Good prank, right, Grian?" Jevin asked, pushing himself off the wall.

Grian nodded. "You guys did a good job on it." 

"Good!" Cleo clapped. "It better be, Impulse deserves a good prank for trying to kill people." 

The angel chuckled. Jevin walked over to them and smiled, patting Grian's shoulder. "Alright, well, I think it's time we all go back home. I'll fly you back to make sure nothin tries to get you, G-man."

"Thanks, Jev." Grian smiled. The two gave Cleo a quick goodbye before taking off with their wings, flying back over to Grian's base out in the ocean. 

Glancing around, he was relieved to see that there were no phantoms out this time. The only things occupying the sky were the twinkling stars, the bright moon, and the two hermits. 

Once it came into view, the two glided down towards the entrance at the bottom. 

Jevin looked around a bit after they landed. He'd never seen Grian's base up close before, but he only gave it a quick glance. 

"Alright, I'll head off now. See ya around, man." Jevin smiled. Turning around he spread his wings once more.

"Wait—" Grian said before he could take off. 

Pausing, Jevin turned around, looking at him curiously.

Grian sighed before speaking. "Earlier before we left to meet up with Cleo—you told me you've never seen a real angel before. What did you mean by that?"

The slimy hermit tilted his head before he remembered. "Oh, yeah," He recalled. "Well, it was true. I've never seen an actual angel before. I'm not what you would consider a real one myself. It's kind of hard to explain.

"I'm more of a 'hybrid', I guess you could say. You can probably tell since I'm a slime—part angel, part slime. I'm even from the Aether. Long story short, I was the result of a weird experiment by the NHO—I don't know if you've heard of them—but Wels and Biffa broke me out of their labs."

Jevin shook his head, smiling. "I still remember what Wels shouted back at those scientists—'If I ever see _any_ of you trying to hurt Jevin again, I _will_ _kill_ _you_, you hear me?' They were really mad, I didn't understand at the time." 

He placed his hand gently on Grian's shoulder. "It really is good to have friends who have your back. I was always nervous I was going to be hunted down again for quite a while around the time when I was rescued. But Wels helped make sure I felt safe, and eventually I did. They're a great friend, and they know a thing or two about protecting people.

"Sorry, I'm ranting a lot, aren't I?" He chuckled. "You get the point, though. I'm not a real angel, and I don't remember much from before those two broke me out. I've never seen a real angel, so you're the first one. Does that answer your question?"

It took Grian a moment to process all of it, but he nodded.

With a grin, Jevin patted his shoulder. "Good. I'll head off now." He turned around, preparing to take off once more.

"One more thing." He paused, glancing back at the other. "I really think you should try to talk to Wels some more, befriend them. They're a really good friend, and he would help you feel safe here. I know it's not easy knowing there's people out there who might come for you, but they can really help you feel like it won't happen."

With that, Jevin waved a quick goodbye, taking off and flying away. 

Grian watched until he could no longer see him in the distance. Sighing, he headed inside. Throwing himself onto his bed, he stared up at the ceiling.

_Try to befriend Wels, huh..._

He closed his eyes, sinking into the comfort of the soft mattress. 

Maybe he could try. It wouldn't kill him.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jevin's wings twitch as a side effect/result of the experiment, just a minor detail I threw in


	28. Who Drinks Their Coffee Black?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Using my personal experience in this man's streams you will see that Wels drinks straight black fucking coffee and will drink like 3 cups in the morning and a lot more after 
> 
> In case you have not caught me saying what Wels said, "I like my coffee how I like my soul: black as can be and bitter"

* * *

Knocking on the door, Grian glanced around. 

The cozy little house was a mix of a somewhat rustic-style and a medieval one—even a hint of elven style, which made sense considering Wels' species. A couple flower beds sat against the walls, along with two more pots in the front by the door. 

It was in a nice, peaceful area, although quite isolated and lonely all the way out in a dark oak forest. The clearing had a nice little pond right by the house, along with a clear view of the sky. 

His little assessment of the area was interrupted when the door opened, bringing his attention back to the reason he came here.

The elf greeted him with a smile. "Hey there, Grian." 

He smiled back, giving a small wave. 

Wels stood back, gesturing for him to come inside, closing the door gently once he did. 

"You want any coffee?" They offered, walking over to the counter. 

Sitting at the small table, Grian glanced around a bit. "Sure."

Wels hummed as they poured themself a hot cup of coffee, along with one for Grian. They sat both cups down on the table before placing down a little cup of sugar, along with one full of milk. 

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods? Literally." Wels chuckled, sitting down across from Grian. 

"Well, I guess I kind of just wanted to talk to you. I ran into Jevin the other day and he said I should." Grian replied, stirring a few spoonfuls of sugar into his mug. 

Wels hummed in response, taking a sip of their coffee. Grian couldn't help but notice that they hadn't put a single grain of sugar in it.

"Um—are you just drinki—"

"Just drinking black coffee? Yep."

The angel pulled a face. "I didn't think you'd be the type of person to drink plain coffee like that."

"You'd be surprised." Wels chuckled. "I like my coffee how I like my soul—black as can be and bitter," they joked, and Grian snorted.

They took another quick sip before going back over what Grian said in their head.

"So, you finally met Jevin, huh?" They smiled. "He's a real nice guy." 

Grian nodded. "It surprised me that he was an angel, though. Well, I guess half-angel. Still." 

"Did he tell you about that?"

"Yep."

"Figured. I think you two should get along pretty well, especially since you've both got angel in your species." 

Downing the rest of their coffee—coffee which they finished oddly quickly—Wels stood up to go pour themself another cup. "Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about beyond that?" 

Taking a sip from his own mug, Grian took a moment to think. "Well, there is one thing I guess."

"Which is?"

"Who exactly is the nHo? I've only heard people mention them, but I don't actually know who they are." 

Wels' expression grew slightly cold upon hearing 'nHo'. They paused before sighing, sitting back down and taking a sip of coffee.

"Well, that's a lot to unpack, so I'll try to keep it short," They began. Grian couldn't help but notice a bit of snarky discontent in their tone. 

"The nHo, to put it simply, is a group of bastards who think they're better than the rest of us because they stick to the 'old way' of doing things. And you know what _I_ think, Grian?" They put on a sarcastic smile before frowning angrily again. "_I_ think they're pathetic. And their little group of scientists are no better.

"I'm sure you could tell from what Jevin told you—no matter how much detail he gave—that their scientists are scumbags. Not only do they perform those types of sick experiments, but they do it mercilessly, and if one doesn't go the way they plan? They _kill off_ the subjects." 

Grian froze. Wels' stern and cold expression showed enough how much they hated the group, but he didn't think it would be _that_ horrible.

Wels sighed. "Jevin's lucky. Hell, _I'm_ lucky that I was able to get to that damn lab in time before they decided it was time to kill him. I don't know if I could have even done it without Biffa."

They shook their head. "That place was horrible, and it only became an utter bloodbath once we got there. There weren't too many of those scientists there, but we had to rip through most of them. The ones that got away with their lives know damn well not to continue doing what they were." 

"I..." Grian began, although he was a bit at a loss for words. "I didn't think it would be _that_ bad."

"It's the horrible and unfortunate truth, my friend," Wels said, their voice sounding almost grim. "The main members of the nHo are Doc, Etho, Beef, and Bdubs. I highly doubt you've heard of the three other than Doc."

Grian shook his head, nearly shuddering at the mere mention of Doc. "No, I've never heard of them." 

"Well, if I'm being honest with you, I don't think those three are too bad. Mostly Etho—he's a pretty good guy if you get to know him. But you've most certainly seen the worst side of Doc." 

"Yeah, unfortunately."

Wels groaned, resting their head in their hands. "God, I hate having to be on his side of things while all this dumb pranking is going on. The only reason I even considered agreeing to help is because Xisuma would be there." 

Sighing, they shook their head, taking a sip of coffee. "I guess you win some, you lose some. I'll just have to deal with it."

Glancing up, they realized Grian had quite the frown on his face. In response, they gave a friendly chuckle. 

"Oh, what am I doing. I don't need to spread all my dreadfulness to you." They smiled. "We can both do without, can't we?"

Grian smiled as well, nodding. 

"Alright, it's settled then. So, tell me, how is your base going? I know you've been working on it for quite some time." They asked, leaning back with their mug in their hand.

"Oh, I've pretty much got it done by now," Grian replied. "All I've really got left to do is some interior work and I should be all finished."

"Sounds nice. I'll have to swing by and check it out some time." They were about to take another drink of coffee before an odd glow behind Grian distracted them.

Grian, however, didn't notice. "Hopefully when you do it won't be too much of a mess." He chuckled. "I've still got a million chests and things laying around that I haven't gotten around to—"

_"Grian!"_ A mechanical voice shouted happily behind him, startling him. 

Turning around, he saw NPC Grian standing there, bits static fading from around him. 

Sighing, Grian smiled at him. "Don't scare me like that! I thought you were staying over with Mumbo." 

Moving over next to him, NPC sat on the floor, looking up at his brother. 

"Had to come tell you something." He chirped before turning and peering over the table at Wels. His smiled widened as he pointed to them. "You're elf friend is surprised." He giggled. 

Turning back to Wels, Grian saw that they were staring blankly, confused.

Wels blinked. "Um—"

"Ah—sorry about that. This is NPC Grian." 

"Hello!" NPC waved cheerfully. 

Although still confused, Wels gave a small wave back, smiling. "So he's like a robot version of you?"

"Well, sort of, but basically yes. He also likes to call me his brother, so technically he's my brother, as well," The angel replied. 

"How sweet." Wels chuckled. "Does he want any coffee?"

Grian turned to his robotic brother. "Uh—_do_ you want coffee?"

NPC smiled brightly, nodding. "Never tried it." He giggled. "Can't stay though."

"Why not?" Wels asked, standing up and returning to the counter. "I mean, I have some little cup containers that I can use so you can take some coffee with you, so that won't be a problem." 

"Gotta take Grian back. Mumby needed him," NPC said, getting off the floor as Wels handed him a to-go cup of coffee. 

Grian looked at him curiously. "What does Mumbo need me for?" 

NPC giggled. "Secret." 

Wels chuckled. "You want any sugar or milk in your coffee, bud?" 

"No, need to go anyway."

"Alrighty then." Wels returned to their chair, taking a sip of their own coffee. "Have fun with Mumbo, you two. Tell him I said hi."

Grian smiled. "I will. Thanks, Wels." 

Waving a small goodbye, Wels smiled back. 

"Bye-bye elfy!!" NPC giggled, grabbing Grian's arm and teleporting the two away. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if I've ever mentioned that NPC can teleport I hope y'all would have that HC for him already lmao
> 
> This is the quickest I've updated NFAH again in a while but that's cause I had an idea 
> 
> Usually if I can get the ball rolling just a little I can do another chapter or two


	29. [Updated info dump]

* * *

For the sake of my sanity as I copy this shit over to Wattpad I'm going back and tweaking the first bunches of chapters making them less cringy and bad lol

So while I do that have a huge ass info dump

I've done info dumps here plenty of times but this one is the most up to date with all the changes I've made 

Also on Wattpad this story will be less restricted with the ship stuff, it's gonna be plain whatever I make canon like Welsuma and Grumbo whereas here you can interpret whatever ships you want or none at all

Any other info dump chapters here I'm gonna delete and yea I'm gonna fix the first chapters lol they were bad 

Enough of that have this mess of character details and lore for the characters who aren't just plain human and have more going on with their character (the others aren't necessarily boring lol some of them canonically have mysterious pasts or not much known about them or they just don't have a super special background)

(Also props if you can make the lore connection between Grian and Jevin)

** Wels: **

• Species: Elf (wood elf, specifically)

  
• Pronouns: They/Them

  
• Appearance: 5'10, rather androgynous, pointy elf ears (of course), deer-like freckles mixed with regular freckles, rosy cheeks, ice blue eyes, tooth gap, long golden hair pulled into a ponytail in the back, clothing without armor: dark grey sweatpants with either a black fitted tanktop or a baggy light grey sweater, tall iron boots; clothing with armor: black turtleneck (long sleeves), iron+gold chestplate, chainmail around the stomach, black leggings, tall iron boots, iron gauntlets

  
• Abilities: Sensing aura/tones much more precisely than anyone else (can even work as a lie detector, they can test the truth of someone's words, also like a vibe check), elementumkinesis (manipulation of elements at will such as earth/nature, water, fire, void, etc.), can glow their eyes different colors

  
• General personality: Cautious yet laid back, non-violent unless provoked (and if it meant protecting their friends), caring, protective, snarky, passive aggressive, they are not the most social though they can be very vocal at times, mainly if provoked or have a strong opinion on the topic at hand, not afraid to debate and is often a voice of reason

  
• Weapon of choice: Iron sword, bow, smite V axe

  
• Closest friends: Xisuma, Ex, Biffa, Jevin, Scar

  
• Team: Team UGS (Wels, Jevin, Biffa)

  
• Backstory: Wels is an elven knight from the Twilight Forest where they had a group of kingdoms they built up, each with a different name and theme. One day, mysterious creatures showed up and destroyed everything, killing the residents of their kingdoms. They never wanted to trust people again after that, but when a man named Joe showed up with no sense of I'll intent, they reluctantly agreed to come with him to Hermitcraft. Because of what happened in the past, they swore to protect everyone even if it cost them their life and everything they had. They also have a deep hatred for the nHo, mostly because the scientists are corrupt and they're tired of Doc acting better than the others. 

  
• Smaller details: They drink their coffee black, they tend to isolate themselves, their personality is much different than what people would first think: they would seem like a social and upbeat person, when really they can be upbeat but are mostly shut off and isolated, though no one knows why, they have a wolf companion named Remi who rarely comes out of hiding, but when she does, she can be very playful and eccentric. They also have a daughter named Xavi, around 11 years old, who is not seen too often, as she spends most of her time away from people, often just sleeping at home or staying in her room, sometimes in the End. As far as everyone knows, she was created using magic out of loneliness. 

  
• (Bonus: You don't have to interpret this when you read it, however, it is an underlying canon detail in this story that Wels is Xisuma's spouse.) 

** Mini details: Xavi **

• Species: Elf

•Pronouns: She/her

•Bonus; Age: Around 11

• Appearance: 5'3, shoulder length light blonde hair pulled into a ponytail in the back, pointy ears, light freckles, light blue or purple eyes (often changes between the two), clothing: smaller version of Jevin's hoodie (though still big on her), blue sweatpants, beige boots with fluff at the top

• Abilities: Teleportation, elementumkesis (though not as strong as Wels), can communicate with endermen and other mobs as well as tame them, can glow her eyes different colors (mostly does purple)

• General personality: While not really seen, she is upbeat and kind, similar to NPC Grian, only less energetic. She may also be more serious/mature if the situation called for it

• Weapon of choice: None, she doesn't fight 

• Closest friends: Ex, "Worm Man", Jevin, and Biffa (obviously close to Wels but that's because they're her parent)

• Team: None, but you could count her in with Team UGS if you wanted to

• Backstory: She technically doesn't have one. Not much is known about her, and there isn't much to know anyway. The most anyone knows is that Wels created her using some sort of magic due to loneliness.

• Smaller details: Her name is pronounced "Zah-vee", she is rarely seen because she either stays at home in her room sleeping or she is in the End dimension to play with endermen, her favorite mobs are endermen, she calls Jevin and Biffa her uncles, she refers to Wels as "Baba" 

** Jevin: **

• Species: Half-angel, half-Aether slime

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: 5'7, generally structured like a human only made of blue slime, small globs of slime floating around his head area, angel wings with a bluish ombre at the bottom, has eyes like a slime (only more oval-shaped vertically), blue freckles, clothing: white hoodie with a sort of clip art blue slime on the front and a black J on the back, black sweatpants, black sneakers with blue decals (like the laces n stuff)

  
• Abilities: Flight without elytra and rockets, can take on other forms, can control the little globs of slime around him

  
• General Personality: Chill, has a more joking/playful nature, rarely very serious unless needed, has kind of a prankster attitude (bastard energy)

  
• Weapon of choice: Bow

  
• Closest friends: Wels, Biffa, Cleo

  
• Team: Team UGS (Wels, Jevin, Biffa)

  
• Backstory: Jevin has no memory of who he was in the past before the experiment. He was a result of an experiment performed by a group of nHo scientists who used a captured angel from the Aether along with a slime. Of all the hybrid experiments they attempted, he was the only successful one they had done. He was given a name and the scientists continued to study him afterwards, either teaching him things or performing tests on him. At one point, he was finally broken out of the labs by Wels and Biffa, who were raiding nHo labs all over the server anywhere they could find them. When they were making their final escape, Wels turned back to the scientists who lived and, full of rage, they yelled: "If I ever see any of you trying to hurt Jevin again, I will kill you, you hear me?" After that, all members of the nHo, scientists or not, avoided provoking Wels, although Doc was not as cautious.

  
• Smaller details: He often likes to make little "bloop" noises, he can communicate with slimes and magma cubes, he's actually quite good a PVP, he's tried several times to remember what his life was like when he was an angel and who he was before, but every time he tried, all he got was a headache.

** Grian: **

• Species: Angel

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: 5'6, fluffy hair that goes just a bit past his chin, dirty blonde fading into brown near the bottom, white angel wings, clothing: red turtleneck sweater, blue sweatpants, and black sneakers 

  
• Abilities: Flight without elytra or rockets, creating temporary yet strong shields from glowstone dust, turning bows spectral, glowing his eyes different colors, teleportation (only small distances), healing (though cannot heal ALL wounds, only minor ones.)

  
• General personality: Playful and silly around certain people (mainly Mumbo), occasionally quiet and even fearful depending on the situation, cautious at times, prankster

  
• Weapon of choice: Trident, bow, sword

  
• Closest friends: Mumbo, Xisuma, NPC Grian, Iskall, previously Taurtis

  
• Team: Architechs (Grian, Mumbo, Iskall)

  
• Backstory: Grian is an angel from the Aether who used to live with his fellow angel friends, such as Taurtis. They all lived happily together on the main Aether island until a group of scientists ransacked the island, capturing most of the angels and killing a few. Grian was the only one left after he and Taurtis found a place to hide, yet when Taurtis went to get the others, he never returned. Grian ultimately went on a rampage, killing all of the scientists that remained and destroying the portal. Since that day, he was afraid of lab coats or anyone/anything resembling a scientist. In the years that he was alone, Grian brought NPC Grian into being, yet he had malfunctions that caused him to be sealed away. One day, a stranger named Xisuma showed up and managed to talk him into joining his community called Hermitcraft.   
• Smaller details: NPC Grian calls Grian his big brother, so Grian allows them to be labeled brothers; Grian re-made his "Taurtis Summoning Platform" near his starting base underwater to replicate the one he had in the Aether, continuing to leave flowers at it in hopes that it would really work.

** Mini info: NPC Grian: **

• Species: NPC, partial demon

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: Similar to Grian, only he has no wings (elytra instead), he is 5'5, and he has a few visible lines on his face and hands as if he is made of parts put together, wears a few flower clips in his hair

  
• Abilities: Teleportation, hovering off the ground (only a couple feet), healing if focusing hard enough, identification of objects or creatures through scanning, and can make mechanical or electronic noises such as beeping or alarm noises

  
• General personality: Oddly upbeat and cheerful, eccentric and happy almost all the time

  
• Weapon of choice: Due to not being programmed to fight, he can only defend using a shield 

  
• Closest friends: Mumbo, Grian, Evil Xisuma

  
• Team: None, however you could technically include him in the Architechs with Grian

  
• Backstory: He was brought into being through an odd ritual performed by Grian and was meant to be a building buddy, however, he malfunctioned and had to be sealed away. Grian brought him back once in the overworld and fixed his bugs, causing him to function as normal, only with a much different attitude than expected.

  
• Smaller details: Also called "NPG" short for "NPC Grian" or just "NPC", he loves flowers, he calls Grian his big brother, and he is quite fond of Wels, who is still a bit taken aback by his unexpectedly cheerful and upbeat nature, one that they aren't used to seeing from anyone. He is also quite fond of Evil Xisuma, often messing around with him and teasing him about "being edgy".

** Xisuma: **

• Species: Human/Void being

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: 6'3, chin-length slightly greyish-brown hair partially pulled into a small ponytail in the back, x-shaped scar going across his face in the center along with a few other scars, stubbly chin, green eyes, clothing: black turtleneck (long sleeves) with dark-ish green chestplate (beige armor piece around his stomach), elbow pads, armored leggings the same color as his chestplate, tall beige armor boots

  
• Abilities: Admin powers aka control over the world, such as teleporting, changing the time of day, banning (which sends people to the void), healing, etc., ability to float freely in the void without risk of death, as well as breathing in the void; can grant admin powers to others, can manipulate the void element (similar to Wels, but only with void)

  
• General personality: Laid back, can be silly or joking at times, a serious admin when he needs to be, caring.

  
• Weapon of choice: Sword

  
• Closest friends: Wels, Biffa, Keralis, Bdubs, Grian, Mumbo

  
• Team: IDEA (Keralis, Bdubs, Xisuma)

  
• Backstory: Little is actually known about Xisuma's past, as he doesn't know much either. The most that is known is that he was created by the void, along with his brother, "Evil Xisuma" or "Ex", real name being Xizara. 

  
• Smaller details: He granted admin powers to Biffa, he is one of the few people who knows how to properly travel to the Aether (most think it is a myth, however, there are more complex steps to get there that almost no one knows of), his eyes glow purple whenever he uses his admin powers or other powers

  
• (Bonus: As said with Wels, you don't have to interpret this if you want, but it is underlyingly canon that Xisuma is Wels' husband.)

** Mini info: Xizara, or "Evil Xisuma": **

  
• Species: Human/Void Being, ex-half-demon

  
• Pronouns: He/Him 

  
• Appearance: 6'4, very scrawny, long white hair pulled into a messy bun in the back, has smaller scars on his face, such as on his nose and one over his left eye; clothing: black turtleneck, red jacket, ripped black leggings, black combat boots, along with a single flower hair clip 

  
• Abilities: Same as Xisuma, along with the ability to tame Ender dragons and endermen, as well as the ability to sense people's real intentions (similar to Wels). He can also summon lightning at will, but it takes a good amount of energy, fire immunity 

  
• General personality: Snarky, mostly an "ugh" attitude, actually very caring towards people like his brother, can actually be quite nice if you aren't a dick basically, doesn't often trust people unless he doesn't sense anything wrong with them

  
• Weapon of choice: Bare hands, double daggers 

  
• Closest friends: Xisuma, Wels, Scar, Stress, NPC Grian, Tango, Zedaph, Impulse, "Worm Man"

  
• Team: None, though he often tags along with Team ZIT or his brother

  
• Backstory: Similarly to Xisuma, not much is known about his backstory. However, he used to be partial-demon, or, rather, partially possessed by a demon. He and his brother were in the Nether when they were attacked by one. To protect Xisuma, he allowed the demon to use his body as a vessel if it agreed not to hurt his brother. After years of being forced to destroy things around the server each season, Xizara finally got rid of the demon with the help of the Convex. However, by the time he did, he was given the name "Evil Xisuma" by just about everyone. After that, most shortened it to "Ex".

  
• Smaller details: He is trans, the flower clip he wears is from NPC Grian, he knows how to knit/sew, and the only people who still call him by his actual name "Xizara" are his closest friends and brother, he hates tea

** Tango: **

• Species: Demon

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: 5'8, red eyes (not like,, entirely, is just his eye color), short golden hair that kind of sticks up and out, mostly in the back, small red horns, red markings on the sides of his face, fangs, red demon wings, pointy red tail, pointy ears (similar to Wels but pulled back a bit more rather than just sticking straight out), clothing: black vest over a shirt with long red and white striped sleeves, dark red jeans, combat boots, black red fingerless gloves

  
• Abilities: Flight without elytra and rockets, manipulation of the fire element (including shooting flames from his hands), taming Nether mobs, fire immunity, can speak to Nether mobs

  
• General personality: Friendly, non-violent unless provoked, protective of his friends (especially Zedaph and Impulse), laid back

  
• Weapon of choice: Flames/fire, explosives, flame bow

  
• Closest friends: Zedaph, Impulse

  
• Team: Team ZIT (Zedaph, Impulse, Tango)

  
• Backstory: While not much is known about his life in the Nether, Tango was brought to Hermitcraft by Zedaph and Impulse, who he encountered being swarmed by pigmen and attacked by a ghast. He helped get them away from both, making sure they were unharmed. The two talked with him for a bit as he made sure they made it back to their portal safely. They learned he was much different than other demons in the Nether, not being cruel and heartless. Instead of leaving him and promising to visit again, the two simply brought him back to the overworld with them, and he eventually warmed up to the group, who also warmed up to him. It took a quite for everyone to trust him and for him to feel safe, but they all got there eventually. Though, he is still rather cautious of Doc.

  
• Smaller details: Tango often talked to the pigmen in the Nether, he always tried to protect anyone he saw in danger when in the Nether, though most were afraid of him, he's reluctant to harm or kill any Nether mobs that aren't Wither skeletons (he doesn't trust them).

** Doc: **

  
• Species: Half-creeper, half-cyborg

  
• Pronouns: He/Him

  
• Appearance: Right side of his face takes on the creeper-like appearance, left side takes on the cyborg appearance, right eye is all black with a white dot representing a pupil (has a thin circle around it as well), left eye is a red robotic eye, right arm is a robotic arm, left is a regular arm with the creeper appearance, long bunny-like ears that extend downward and slightly back, short and shaggy brown hair, clothing: an open and tattered white lab coat extending down to his knees, left sleeve half rolled up, right sleeve torn off at the shoulder, blue ripped jeans, no shoes

  
• Abilities: Can channel lightning through his trident during a storm, scanner built into his robotic eye

• General personality: Intimidating, often uses a mocking or light tone with an underlying viciousness or venom, cryptic in a way, sometimes cruel, hard-headed, calmly-aggressive (though not necessarily passive)

  
• Weapon of choice: Trident

  
• Closest friends: Ren, Bdubs, Etho, Beef

  
• Team: The nHo (Doc, Etho, Beef, Bdubs, along with groups of scientists)

  
• Backstory: Doc is one of the most mysterious hermits, if not the most, as virtually nothing is known about his past. 

  
• Smaller details: Doc is the most violent, or most likely to be violent, hermit and is not afraid to threaten people, however, he does not take it too far in which Xisuma would have to take measures such as banning. Even still, he has crossed the line with some people and tested their patience, especially Wels, who he likes to taunt the most (and, frankly, the only reason they haven't ripped him to utter shreds is because Xisuma held them back. They are most certainly capable of hurting or even killing Doc, as well as the only hermit who would even dare to try.). Doc enjoys messing with Wels about their "tough talk", often saying how they have tough guts and such, acting as if their words are often empty threats (when in reality, Doc is more likely to be all bark and no bite, although both of them certainly have both.).

** Mini info: Cleo **

• Species: Human-like zombie

  
• Pronouns: She/Her

  
• Appearance: She takes on the look of a zombie, green eyes, long wavy ginger hair with a wilted flower crown, multiple areas with bones exposed (such as part of her ribs and cheek) clothing: tattered crop top shirt exposing her shoulders, black shorts, tall black and white striped socks, short brown pirate-like boots

  
• Abilities: Unlike normal zombies she does not burn in the sunlight, unable to drown, taking abnormal amounts of damage/injuries without dying (example: you could stab a sword through her chest and she wouldn't die, only laugh and ask if you want it back), can communicate with zombies and tame them

  
• General personality: Extreme bastard energy I don't know how else to tell you this, often quite joking, severe prankster attitude, actually quite dark and cryptic sometimes, can have an underlying creepy/sick and twisted nature

  
• Weapon of choice: Sword, bow

  
• Closest friends: Joe, Xisuma, Jevin, Stress, False

  
• Team: None, however she often buddies up with Joe for things

  
• Backstory: While not much is known about Cleo either, it has been implied that she used to be the captain of a pirate crew. However, no one knows what happened to her and her crew or how she ended up the way she did. She still enjoys and shows aspects of pirate life, such as building a pirate ship as her base, and can still have a pirate-like attitude. 

  
• Smaller details: She can be one of the most chaotic hermits solely based on personality, she has an odd obsession with heads (be it mob heads or models of the other hermits heads), she is bisexual and will sometimes jokingly flirt with other hermits (especially False when she's in a PVP mood)

  
• (Bonus that you don't have to interpret: She sometimes will refer to either of the other girls as her wife, although she is not actually married.)

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also my Wattpad is "c0nsistentlyinc0nsistent" I have a mess of a oneshot book where I also info dump and throw around random bullshit like I started a whole ass revolution but that's beside the point
> 
> And then I have copied over Misery Loves Company and like I said will soon have this copied over as well with set canon ships and shit


	30. Chickens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I write NPC Grian dialogue in my head I imagine he sounds like Gir lol
> 
> Not his canon voice in this but yknow,, I just hear Gir's voice for some reason
> 
> Anyways this is just a small little update because I need to fucking update things and I'm doing stuff with the older chapters of this story to A) generally make them less trash and format them and B) to copy them over to Wattpad or get ready to at least (more abt that in the end notes)

* * *

Mumbo huffed, tapping his foot. His arms were crossed, a grumpy expression on his face as he stood in front of the large orb-like structure built at the top of his base.

Acting as if he didn't know what was going on, Grian stood there, glancing around. Behind him, NPC Grian was swaying his head side-to-side, humming a silly tune to himself.

_"Well?"_ Mumbo raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to explain why you've built this here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Grian shrugged.

_"Hmph."_ Mumbo turned around, smacking away a block jutting out from the orb with his pickaxe. Immediately, a flock of chickens began making their way out, going in all directions. 

Suppressing a laugh, Grian tried to maintain a straight face. Even still, a small chortle escaped him.

"Oh, come on! I know you built this here, Grian." 

"It wasn't _me_—it was the man in the chicken costume!" Grian laughed.

"Poultry man!" NPC giggled, throwing his hands in the air. 

Mumbo face palmed with an exasperated groan. "I can't believe you two sometimes." He shook his head, pointing to the mess of chickens behind him.

"Clean it up." 

Grian pouted, NPC mimicking him. 

"_You_ built it, _you_ clean it up!" 

"But I don't wanna! And I told you, it wasn't _me_, it was—"

Before Grian could finish, a chicken suddenly came flying at him, hitting him square in the face. 

NPC Grian broke out into laughter, nearly falling over. "Mumbo threw a chicken at you!!" He pointed to Grian, who only stood there in confusion. 

Mumbo huffed, repressing a smile. "Clean this mess up or I'll throw one again."

  
Spitting out a feather—which sparked another giggle from NPC—Grian grumbled. "Oh, fine." 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point btw the story isn't even that much about Grian trying to keep it a secret that he's from the Aether, it's more about just building up knowledge/detail about the other characters and Grian growing closer to them 
> 
> Do I know what the overall conflict would shift to? I've had a bit of an idea, but I dunno how well it would work, so yes and no 
> 
> By the way!! I mentioned in the notes of the latest Misery Loves Company update that I'd be copying this story over to Wattpad as well (which is "noconsistentname" for anyone who wants it). On Wattpad the ships will actually be canon ships like Grumbo and Welsuma and maybe others, whereas here it'll be whatever you wanna interpret. So on Wattpad there'll actually be confirmed shippy things and not just "oh you could see this as a ship interaction" no it'll just be "this is 100% a ship interaction". 
> 
> So that's what Wattpad gets, whereas AO3 gets an extra character! :D You may have noticed I added a character named Xavi to the info dump, I removed her at first then decided I'd keep her for AO3. She's a character I made for a "next gen AU" on my shipblr (tumblr) but the only difference here is she's JUST Wels' daughter, she doesn't have another parent (unless you interpret the Welsuma then her other parent would be X technically) 
> 
> So yea that's that, if you wanna read this with actual ship things added in as canon once it's up and copied over on Wattpad I'll announce that for ya
> 
> That's all, bye :D 
> 
> Oh but P.S. this was a fun chapter I drew a shitpost for Mumbo yeeting a chicken at Grian it's on my main Tumblr but you'd have to search on my blog for it lol (ihavenoconsistentname just do the search thing and search for posts tagged as shitpost)


	31. Cows?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tired while writing this so if it's a little bad oh well lol

* * *

  
Glancing around, there seemed to be no more chickens around. Though, NPC Grian was playing around with one, giggling as it pecked at his hair.

Mumbo had gone elsewhere to take a small nap. Meanwhile, the two were cleaning up the mess of chickens around the base—or what had been built of it, at least. There were no more of them, though a few feathers remained scattered around, which Grian began kneeling down to pick up. 

The angel paused as he was alerted to the sound of an elytra swooping in, followed by the clinking of boots on the platform.

Turning around, he saw a familiar elf who seemed a bit distressed. 

"Is something wrong, Wels?" Grian asked, standing up. 

Wels glanced around, seeming uncertain. "Grian, did you let my cows out?" 

"Why would I do that?" 

Sighing, they ran a hand through their hair. "I don't know—I didn't really think it was you, it's just that someone left _this_ in the pen." 

Reaching into their satchel, Wels pulled out a blocky model of Grian's head. Grian knew how to obtain them—there was a place in the shopping district to buy them—but he never actually bought any. 

"Well, I certainly didn't place it there." Grian looked at it curiously. "I don't know who could have, though. All I know is I wouldn't mess with your home in any way."

Wels grimaced, placing the head back in their bag. "It's alright. I got it taken care of, I just wanted to make sure you really didn't. I don't think I'll try too hard to figure out who it was, though." 

Grian frowned at the fact that Wels seemed so distressed, even if it didn't fully show. "You okay?" 

They shrugged, glancing off to the side. Grian could see that they had bags under their eyes, and they didn't look like their usual self. 

Taking a few steps forward, the angel wrapped his arms around Wels, pulling them into a gentle hug. With a sigh, they returned the embrace, leaning down slightly to bury their face in Grian's shoulder.

"It's okay, Wels. If not, it will be, I'm sure of it." 

"I know," Wels said quietly. "I'm just stressed out."

"It's okay." 

Wels tightened their embrace for a moment before letting go. "I needed that." They mumbled. 

Grian patted their arm with a reassuring smile. And, reluctantly, they smiled back. Though, that smile was interrupted by a slightly harsh cough.

"You alright?" Grian frowned. 

Wels nodded, mumbling a small "ugh". "It's normal."

"Wouldn't that be bad?"

"It's nothing I can fix unfortunately."

"Well, that_ is_ bad." Grian sighed. "I think you should at least go get some sleep. You seem really tired."

"I know, I've gotten some nagging elsewhere." Wels smiled. "Oh, I forgot—"

They dug around in their satchel for a moment, pulling out a small hairpin with a flower on it. "Your buddy dropped this in my house." 

Grian glanced at NPC Grian, who was indeed missing one of the three hairpins he usually wore. "I didn't even notice at first."

He took the pin from Wels, walking over to his robotic brother, who was still messing with a chicken. 

"Wels said you dropped this." He held out the pin to NPC, who gently set the chicken aside and took it.

Standing up, NPC zipped over to Wels, smiling brightly. "Thank you, elfy!!" He giggled.

Though taken by surprise a bit, Wels smiled as well, just not as brightly. "No problem, buddy." They gave his hair a small ruffle.

"Do you need help with anything back at home, Wels?" Grian asked, walking back over. "I can help out if you do."

Running a hand through their hair, Wels shook their head. "I don't think there's anything. I appreciate the offer, though."

They gave a slightly exaggerated sigh as they glanced around. "I do think I need to get back home and rest, though." 

"Good, you need a lot of sleep," Grian said. "You always seem so tired."

Wels shrugged. "You're not wrong." 

NPC Grian gave them a small poke, still holding the hairpin. When they glanced at him, he smiled, reaching up to try and put the pin in their hair. 

"I think you should wear this one!" He giggled. He couldn't quite reach Wels' hair, but they did take the pin. 

"You do, huh?" They chuckled, placing it in their hair. "I guess I can."

NPC flapped his hands excitedly, eyes lighting up. Wels' smile widened a bit as they ruffled his hair. 

"I'll head off now—see you two some other time." 

"Bye Wels." Grian smiled. "Sleep well, alright?"

"Bye-bye elfy!" NPC said happily.

Wels gave a small nod and a wave to them both before deploying their elytra and flying off.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I had big brain moment I would just see if y'all would realize this little piece of 'lore' on your own after a while but nah :P
> 
> So Wels like irl often coughs like in his vids and streams you are almost guaranteed to hear him cough multiple times—this popped into my head when he coughed LOUDLY in the background of Mrs Wels' stream earlier lol
> 
> So I thought oh shit what if like,, Wels in this story was a lot weaker in the overworld because of connections to the Twilight Forest and it being a much different environment 
> 
> Like the air or something is just different there and it's a whole different atmosphere that Wels can't really adjust to so they're just a lot weaker which would also be why they're a lot more pale and fatigued. They're REALLY strong but in the overworld they're not quite as strong, still strong spirited but extremely tired in many ways no matter what and can be a lot weaker physically at times so they also require a lot more rest that they don't get most of the time 
> 
> There's a fun little small detail for ya cause I love doing things like that just small details in the background that are sort of lore connected in a way


	32. Dogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me longer than it should have to update this sorry sjjfs  
I also need to update Misery Loves Company eugh

* * *

"Are we gonna see elfy again?" NPC Grian asked, swinging his legs back and forth as he sat on top of stacked up chests.

"Yeah, we're gonna go see Wels again," Grian replied. "Just to make sure they're doing okay." 

NPC giggled happily, hopping off the chests. He took ahold of his brothers hand as the two made their way out of the base, soon flying off to the distant forest. 

* * *

  
As the two waited for the door to open, Grian noticed NPC gathering up a few mushrooms and flowers nearby. 

"Try not to take too many just in case, pal." He smiled. 

NPC nodded, closing his satchel and walking back over to the angel's side as the door opened. Standing there was a tired elf who didn't seem much better than before.

Grian frowned. "You okay, Wels?" 

"I'm fine, just kind of tired—but that's normal. Come on in, you two," Wels replied, stepping back to let them in.

"Did you get enough sleep last night?" Grian asked, sitting in the same spot at the table he did before. 

Wels grimaced. "Er, no." They sighed, pouring a cup of coffee for all three of them. "I tried to, but I feel like I would have been tired anyway." 

"Elfy needs more sleep," NPC Grian said, pointing to Wels. "Would be bad if they didn't."

Wels smiled, placing the coffee on the table. "I'll get sleep eventually. I can just live off coffee if I have to." They chuckled, taking a sip.

NPC stood next to Grian at the table, mimicking him as he added sugar to his coffee. 

"I couldn't help but notice one thing, Wels." Grian glanced at the elf, who tilted their head. "You seemed awfully upbeat the first time I met you. After that you've seemed pretty drained. Are you sure you're alright?"

Taking another quick drink of coffee, Wels hummed. "Well, if I'm being honest, I had to act a bit around Doc. That's not to say I'm incapable of being that way. It's just that—" They sighed. "It's a bit difficult. I'm always feeling fatigued, but as long as I'm here, it's beyond my control."

Grian tilted his head. "What do you mean 'as long as you're here'?"

"It's not really important," Wels said, waving the question away. "But you get the idea. I can try, but it's hard to be genuinely energetic. I'm certainly capable of acting happier. Takes a toll on me not to be, but it would take a toll on me regardless." 

Grian frowned. "You mean it would harm you not to be because you want to be happy for others?" 

Smiling bitterly, Wels nodded. "You get it." They sighed. "It's in my blood to try my hardest to protect people. Well, not really—but it's an old habit, and it's much harder not to beat yourself up about things when you can't even come off as happy for everyone." 

"It's important not to exhaust yourself," Grian said. "If it benefits you, then it's okay not to always act happy. If you're not okay, you're allowed to not be okay."

"I know, and I should act like I know it's true, because it is. I just—" Wels shook their head. "I have this mindset that if I'm not okay then I'm not able to protect people or at least make sure they stay okay—and that the one time I let myself not be okay then something bad will happen and it'll be my fault."

They began tearing up. "I hate it, too. I want to protect people, and I always want to try. I know I shouldn't be hard on myself, but my mind tells me that if I'm not, I'll lose the people I care about like I have before."

NPC Grian zipped over to Wels, wrapping his arms around them. "Don't cry, elfy." 

Standing up, Grian did the same.

Wels let out a shaky breath, placing a hand on both of the two's arms. "I'm sorry, you two."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Wels," Grian soothed. "It's okay. You got it all off your chest, and that's good."

"I—" Wels sighed, shaking their head. They reached up and gave the two a quick hair ruffle.

They wiped their eyes as the two let go, though Grian kept a comforting hand on their back. 

"I think you should get some more rest, okay, Wels?" The angel suggested. NPC Grian nodded.

Wels gave another sigh, leaning their head against their hand. "Maybe," they mumbled, taking a sip of their coffee. 

Just then, one of the bedroom doors swung open. Walking out of the room was a little girl, along with a wolf dog running happily up to Wels and emitting small howl-like noises.

"Puppy!" NPC giggled.

Wels smiled, leaning over to give the excited dog a pat. "Hey, Remi, girl," they said, their tone changing quite a bit. They glanced over at the girl walking tiredly up to the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee.

"Mornin', Xavi. Finally out of your coma?"

"Ha-ha," she mumbled sarcastically. "You oughta go into one with your lack of sleep."

Wels shrugged. "You're not entirely wrong."

While NPC kneeled next to Remi to pet her soft fur, Grian glanced curiously at the little girl. 

And, noticing the mild confusion, Wels chuckled. "I never told you about Xavi, did I, Grian?"

Grian shook his head.

"Well, this is Xavi, my daughter," Wels said, gesturing to her as she leaned down to pet Remi.

"Heya." Xavi smiled, giving a small wave. She glanced at NPC, who was giggling as Remi licked his cheek. "I think she likes you."

Then she paused, glancing between Grian and NPC. "Are there two of you or am I just really tired?" 

"Well, I guess you could say there's two of us—that's NPC Grian, my little brother," Grian explained briefly.

"Hihi!" NPC giggled, waving to Xavi.

She waved back, smiling once more. 

Remi barked loudly, only to be shushed by Xavi. "Too loud, girl," she said, and Remi made a quieter noise.

"I think she wants to play, kiddo." Wels leaned back, taking another sip of coffee.

Xavi gave her fur a quick ruffle before walking towards the door. "C'mon, girl!" 

Remi barked happily, following her out the door.

Wels smiled as they watched the two leave, giving a content sigh.

"Didn't think you'd have a daughter," Grian mumbled.

The elf shrugged. "A man gets lonely after a while."

"But you're not a—"

"Yeah, I realized after I said it." 

Grian snorted. 

"Moving on." Wels chuckled. "You get my point."

Grian nodded, taking a sip of his own coffee. "Where did she even come from, though?"

"Magic, before you let your mind wander into other territory," Wels replied, giving a quick laugh. "A bit hard to explain, but the easy answer is that I created her."

"And where did you get the name Xavi from?"

Wels shrugged. "Just kinda thought of it." 

Grian smiled. "It's a nice name."

"I haven't heard her complain about it. I don't think she really cares too much about anything—she's just my little kiddo having fun whenever she can." Wels' smile widened as they glanced out the window, watching Xavi running around while Remi chased after. They sighed happily. "She often just sleeps, but I let her. As long as she's happy."

"That's really sweet," Grian said, and NPC nodded.

"Elfy is a good parent," NPC said, giggling. 

Wels shrugged. "I try."

"Well, I think you're doing great," Grian assured them.

"That much is good. I'd like to think I'm a good parent."

"You are for sure."

"Thank you, Grian."

The angel nodded. 

Sighing, Wels stood up. "Well," They glanced out the window one more time. "I might as well get some more rest. There's no reason not to. Xavi can handle herself." 

"That's good. You could use it," Grian said, getting up as well. He gently patted Wels' shoulder. "And remember, let us know if you need anything, alright?"

Wels nodded. "You guys can just leave your cups where they're at, I'll clean them later."

"Alright. I'll let Xavi know you've gone back to sleep on our way out."

"Thank you."

"Sleep well elfy!" NPC smiled. 

Giving a small wave, Wels returned to their room, and with that, Grian and NPC returned to their base.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one:  
Me: makes nonbinary joke  
Because I thought of it and was like yep that's going in the story


	33. [Not a chapter update but very important.]

If you also read Misery Loves Company, you'll see that this chapter is identical to the update over there, and that's because I just copied and pasted it then tweaked a few things. The message for both is basically the same.

So. It's been quite a while since I've updated this story, and even longer since I've last updated Misery Loves Company.

For one thing, I've hit rock bottom again, I've been in a severely depressive episode for a while now and have been way less active on social media in general, I've basically stopped using discord and talking to people with a few tiny exceptions here and there. 

And, as much as I hate saying this: I'm not really into Hermitcraft anymore. Or Wels' streams. I still love Wels to death, he's my favorite content creator, but ever since he became active again and his stream audience jumped way up to over 1k per stream, I've found his streams to be less fun. Almost no fun for me. A big part of the fun was being able to talk to Wels and chat in a much smaller audience but we can't just chill out like that anymore. I haven't been watching C8sun or Mrs Wels stream lately either. I just haven't had the energy, even if those two are really fun to hang out with in their smaller audiences. This story may not be 100% focused around Wels, but 90% of my other content has been. I don't even know the last time I made anything Wels-related. 

I want to clarify: I am absolutely not going to give up on this story, and it's incredibly unlikely that I would give up on Misery Loves Company either. I've been very invested in these two stories, way too much to just ditch them. I got rid of one story in the past because I didn't like where it was going, but I've got so much lore and time and ideas put into both of these stories. I can't just stop writing them.

However: updates will be incredibly slow. I haven't been able to feel as obligated to update them lately. I've been very drained and have had massive creative burnout. I'm still going to update these both the best I can, but updates will be very slow.

I'm sorry to anyone who really likes these stories and looks forward to the next update. I promise you I am not getting rid of them. But I can't update them as frequently as I'd like to when I can't even say I'm interested in Hermitcraft anymore. Part of it is just me falling out of love with it, part of it is how toxic and disgusting the fanbase is with all the antis and assholes who can't just let people live, part of it is just the fact that I'm in a very bad spot mental health wise lately and it's not going to get better in the near future. 

TL;DR: For multiple reasons, updates on this story and Misery Loves Company are going to be very delayed and slow. However, I am absolutely not going to turn my back on them after all the time, effort, and ideas I've put into them, as well as the fun I've had with them.

If you want to keep up with any other stuff I may be doing here and there, you can find me on the following social medias:  
-Tumblr (@ihavenoconsistentname, that url will probably never change)  
-Twitter (@0thebeesknees0)  
-Instagram (@0the_bees_knees0)

Other than that, I'll see you when I get around to updating this again.

Bye bye. ✌


	34. A War?

* * *

As if enough out of the ordinary hadn't happened already, Grian came across something very odd on his way back home.

Well, not quite on the way—more of right when it came into view.

Landing near the center at the top of his base, he and NPC Grian glanced around.

Lava had been placed on the sides of his base at the top, flowing down the sides and even hitting the water below.

"What the hell—?" The angel mumbled.

"You really need to learn how to light up your base better."

Grian turned around to see Joe standing there, smiling. 

"Huh?"

"I was disappointed in you, Grian. Adding lava to the end of our prank like that—I removed it, by the way. You shouldn't try to kill people," Joe scolded.

Grian's eyes widened and he glanced around again. "Is _that_ what all this lava is for?"

Joe nodded. "I figured it would send the message. Now then, I have a proposal for you."

He pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket, holding it up. 

"This can be our agreement not to have any retaliation for this. In turn, I'll stay as your ally. Deal?"

He extended a hand, which Grian shook.

"Deal," the angel replied, and Joe tossed the paper into the lava.

"And by the way—you really _do_ need to try and light up your base more. It's like a death trap any time I try to fly near it."

"Alright, alright." Grian chuckled.

Joe gave him another quick smile before preparing to take off.

"Bye-bye Joe!" NPC giggled, waving. 

With a small wave back, Joe then leapt off off the platform, deploying his elytra and flying away.

* * *

After clearing up the lava, Grian sighed as he flopped down onto his bed, NPC sitting on the floor next to him.

"So what are we gonna do now?" NPC asked. 

"I'm not sure."

"Is there anything we _could_ do?"

"Well—"

Just then, he heard the sound of someone gliding in at the door, boots clinking gently on the glass.

Sitting up, he saw a tired figure walking over, gripping what appeared to be an envelope.

Grian stood up. "What happened to getting some rest?"

Wels sighed. "Xisuma wanted me to help play messenger," they said tiredly. The expression on their face seemed more tired than ever, even dead looking. 

"Here." Wels handed him the letter. "I swear I'll get some rest after this."

"Good, you really need it," Grian replied, taking the letter. 

NPC zipped over, giving Wels a hug. The tired elf returned it after a moment. 

"Elfy needs a lot more rest," He said.

"I know, kiddo—" Wels paused. "Ah, do you mind if I call you that?" 

NPC smiled at them. "I like it!" He giggled.

Wels smiled as well, despite how tired they were. "'Kiddo' it is, then." They sighed, patting NPC's head. "Well, I gotta finish up delivering these, I've only got a couple left."

"Couldn't you have declined and asked Xisuma to get someone else's help if you were tired? Xavi could have done it instead, right?" Grian questioned.

"Nah, it's fine." Wels shook their head. "Besides, I didn't wanna bug Xavi with it. She barely even knows how to fly—though I suppose she could just teleport."

"Well, hopefully you'll still be able to rest up enough afterwards."

The elf nodded, gently motioning to NPC to let go before kneeling down to his level for a moment. "And next time I see you two, I'll try to have a bit more energy, alright?"

NPC smiled, nodding.

"Alright, I'm off. You two have a good rest of your evening."

"Bye-bye, elfy!"

"See you around, Wels." Grian offered a small wave.

Wels gave them a small wave before heading out the door.

Grian paused for a moment before sitting back down on his bed, opening the letter he was given. It didn't specify on the envelope who it was from.

NPC looked over his shoulder, both of them taking a moment to read over the letter.

_'As you are very aware, there have been some recent shenanigans going on around the server. Pranks have been thrown around left and right, some going further than others._

_We have decided that we will settle any existing conflicts through a sort of 'Prank War', if you will. However, this will not be a war solely making use of pranks._

_It will be moderated by Cub and Scar of the convex. Terms will be discussed in a meeting between the two teams. _

_At the current moment, these are the most certain group alliances:_

_Grian, Joe, Cleo, Jevin, Cleo, Tango_

_Xisuma, Doc, Wels, Impulse_

_Others involved in pranks, whether they were victims or behind pranks themselves:_

_Iskall, Stress, False, Ren, Mumbo_

_You have 3 days to establish your final alliances. If you are not currently verified as an ally of either group, this is the time to make it clear who you stand with._

_Until then, there will be no more retaliation or pranks._

_Sincerely, the Convex._

_P.S. This was an idea coined to us by someone who will remain unnamed, and was approved by Xisuma. You will only receive this message if you have been involved in any pranking. Otherwise, you will not be a part of this war.'_

  
Grian stared at the letter with mild disbelief.

A _war?_ They were going to have a _war?_ Pitting their friends against each other like this?

Not only that, but a few of them never wanted to be roped into this.

And hell, two of his current "enemies" are two of his closest friends. And the third was the person he feared the most.

The letter said the war wouldn't only make use of pranks. So they were going to have to be fighting?

He wouldn't stand a chance. Especially against someone like Doc.

Even Wels. Sure, they were friends with him, but they're forced to be his enemy. They would be forced to fight against him as well.

"This is unbelievable," Grian groaned. "I didn't think pranking people would ever go this far."

"What are we gonna do? We know Mumbo's gonna be on our side, right?" NPC frowned. 

Grian nodded. "Surely he would. And Iskall as well, maybe even Stress. But that would also mean False might be one of our enemies, and everyone knows how good she is at fighting."

"Do you think she would even be better than elfy?"

"It's possible, but I can't say for certain."

NPC hugged his brother's arm. "Would I still be with you during the war? I don't want to have to stay here while you're fighting, but it doesn't say my name anywhere."

Grian sighed, ruffling NPC's hair. "I'm sure you'll be able to. If I just ask Cub and Scar, I'm sure they'd allow it."

He glanced at the letter once more.

"Even still, this is really bad."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the Civil War arc is coming!!! Even if I'm slower on updates I've been very excited building up to it. I've got a few things planned and pre-written for this arc, it's gonna be really fun :) 
> 
> Also, I was debating whether or not to even include Joe's "Don't Kill People" prank, but I realized it's kinda semi-important since it establishes the alliance between Grian and Joe. I left out quite a few other pranks, which only added to the inconsistency, but it was warned beforehand at some point that this would be an inconsistent mess. 
> 
> Anyways! I hope you enjoyed the update :) I wanted to try and update this and maybe Misery Loves Company if I get the chance, that one might be a real small update though.


	35. Let's Go To War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is a reference to the song Go To War lol
> 
> Updates might be coming a bit quicker during this arc because I had a LOT of things pre-written, be it a whole chapter like this or snippets of chapters

* * *

Grian glanced around nervously, fidgeting with his thumbs. His wings twitched with anticipation, and his eyes flickered around every now and again.

The three days had passed. Grian had more people on his side than the other—Joe, Cleo, Stress, Iskall, Jevin, Tango, and Mumbo were on his side, along with NPC, who stood a bit behind Grian, but still next to him. The Convex gave him the okay to be a part of the team.

The other team wasn't here yet, but he was anticipating their arrival. On the opposite team was Doc, Ren, Xisuma, Wels, False, and Impulse, along with someone who was completely unfamiliar to Grian. They were far outnumbered, but everyone knew damn well just how strong the majority of them were.

If anything, he was especially nervous about having to face Doc again. 

Doc was intimidating no matter what to him. Grian hated the energy he gave off, and no matter what he felt scared of him. He knew this man had the power to hurt him, and very well might. 

But his thoughts were cut off when the other team began walking up, taking their places in a line opposite from Grian's team. 

Most of them wore a neutral expression. Some had an expression that was soft yet serious, but Grian could tell some of them didn't want to be here. Doc's was different—his had an underlying tone of cunningness, as if he were hiding something. 

But it didn't matter right now. They were ready to start.

"Good afternoon, everybody," Cub began, everyone's attention turning to him. "We'll be discussing the rules and regulations of how this war will go down. Each of you are on opposite teams, however, you are free to switch teams so long as we allow it. You can get rid of your teammates as well if you collectively agree on it, and if you get our approval."

"You both have a designated area in which your team will work together to build your base," Scar continued, picking up from where Cub left off. "You have a grace period of about 27 days to create your bases and prepare for war. During this time, there will be no fighting, no pranking, no trapping—none of that. If we catch any of you fighting during this ceasefire—"

"Oh, don't worry. None of these guys will even think about fighting us until the war begins," Doc interrupted, turning to the other team. "It would be foolish for any of you to even try."

"Besides," he continued, tone containing hints of taunting. "some of you know just what power I can hold." He shifted his piercing gaze to Jevin with an evil grin.

  
Grian glanced over at Jevin, who seemed nervous and uncomfortable as he refused to meet Doc's gaze. He'd maintained a more stern look before, but it faded as he felt those eyes staring into his soul, cruelly taunting him for what his scientists did in the past

But before anyone said anything else, Wels frowned angrily. "Screw off, Doc." They said sternly, and the amount of venom in their voice took Grian by surprise. 

Doc lightened up his expression, looking at the elf. "What? I'm only giving a fair warning, Welsie."

"Don't you_ 'Welsie',_ me." They growled. "Leave him alone."

"Oh, lighten up. I'm only—"

_"Leave. Him. **Alone."**_ Wels repeated, raising their voice. Their stance had changed, hand gripping their sword as they turned towards Doc, standing firmly as if ready to strike at any moment.

Finally, Doc backed off, putting up his hands defensively. Xisuma turned to Wels, mumbling something that seemed to calm them down. Sighing, they released their sword, moving back to their original position and crossing their arms. The admin wrapped a comforting arm around them, and they leaned their head against his shoulder.

  
Scar glanced at Doc before turning his attention back to the whole group. "Now then," he continued. "27 days. After that, we will go over the terms of war again. You are to keep any and all fighting between your two bases once it begins. No completely destroying each other's bases—it would be much too easy to do that.

"You are free to trap your own base and the other team's base, and micro-micro annihilations are allowed. Lethal pranking is okay, PVP is absolutely okay. You all know that everyone has the ability to respawn, so there should be no worry. However, if at any time you fear that you may not come back, the Convex will provide you with a Totem of Undying charm. That way, you're guaranteed to come back. Everyone understand?"

"Yes, sir," They all said in unison.

"Don't forget, you are _not_ to harm _anyone_ during this ceasefire," Scar repeated loud and clear. "Do you understand?"

Once more, they all said yes.

"You hear that, Wels?" Doc turned to his teammate, tauntingly. "No hurting anyone until it's over."

Immediately, the elf lunged at him, only to be stopped by Xisuma.

"Hey, hey—" The admin sighed. "Doc, cut it out." 

He turned back to Wels. "Leave it, don't waste your breath," He said quietly. 

_"Bastard."_ Wels hissed at Doc, but they left it after that. 

NPC Grian shrunk further behind Grian, emitting a small, fearful whine. Grian reached over and picked him up, holding him comfortingly in his arms. 

Scar glared at the cyborg, annoyed. "Doc, don't agitate your teammates, do you understand me?"

Doc rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir."

  
"Good," Scar said, going back to addressing the whole group. "That wraps things up for now. Remember: you have 27 days to prepare. Anything after that will not have your guaranteed safety from battle. Do you all understand the rules?"

"Yes sir," they all said.

  
"Alright, then. Now go."

  
With that, both teams went their separate ways and began preparing for the war that would begin soon.

* * *


	36. That Design Wasn't Intended

* * *

"It kind of looks like a water filter." Cleo snorted. 

Many days had passed as the deadline crept closer and closer—Grian's team had their base pretty much finished. There were only a few inner details that needed work. 

Both teams had also established names. Grian's team managed to settle on "G-Team", meanwhile the other team was named Team STAR. Everyone was pretty sure it was an acronym for something, but they had no clue what. Or maybe it was based on their base design—considered it was meant to be a star fort.

"Well, you're not wrong," Jevin mumbled.

Grian groaned. "Okay, maybe it does. But at least we have a base?"

"Yeah, that's all that matters!" Stress smiled.

"Team STAR over there built a turtle." Iskall chuckled. "You gotta admit, that's what it looks like—"

"You know, I didn't lay out all that foundation and do all that planning just for you to make fun of my work, IKEA man."

Everyone turned around upon hearing the tired and sarcasm-laced voice. 

"IKEA man?!" Iskall looked at Wels, and Stress giggled.

Wels smiled. "And yeah, your base looks like a water filter. So at least ours has a better accidental look to it."

"Wels, why are you over here?" Grian asked. 

The elf turned around for a moment. "Well? Get over here, kiddo." 

Just then, NPC Grian came out from hiding behind a tree, walking over to Wels. He seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Your brother snuck into our base early, but I think he was just looking for me." Wels scooped up NPC in their arms. "Though, I don't know why."

"I wanted to make sure elfy was okay!" NPC whined. 

"Well, that's sweet of you, NPC, but you can't go sneaking into their base like that—it's dangerous, even if we're still in the ceasefire." Grian shook his head, giving NPC's hair a small ruffle.

Wels gently handed NPC over to Grian, who let his brother climb up onto his shoulders. 

"And you can't go sneaking into our base when the ceasefire is over, okay, kiddo?" Wels frowned. "I know you like hanging out with me, but you have to remember the position we're all in, even if none of us like it."

"Okay..." NPC mumbled. "I'm sorry, elfy."

"It's alright, kiddo." Wels smiled. "I'll go ahead and leave you guys alone now, alright?"

"Take it easy, Wels," Jevin said, and the others nodded.

The elf sighed. "I'll try. Good luck, all of you. I really don't like having to be your enemy, so don't take it too personally during battle." 

"We won't. We know you were one of the people who wanted more than anything not to be involved," Grian replied.

"Yeah, we're still friends, after all!" Stress smiled.

"And if you think otherwise, then don't, ya dummy." Cleo gave their arm a light and playful punch.

Wels smiled. "Thanks, you guys."

"Of course, dude!" Tango exclaimed, then paused. "Or, uh—thude?"

"You're fine, Tango." Wels chuckled. "Alright, I'm off now."

"Bye, elfy!" NPC waved to them.

Wels gave a small wave back before heading back to Team STAR's base.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have another chapter pre-written after this plus another that I'll be finishing up soon and it's wonderful 
> 
> I need to try and get an update for Misery Loves Company but without pushing myself because I did point out updates won't be very quick normally 
> 
> In this arc I just had so much pre-written in snippets and full chapters as well so it makes stuff easy whereas Misery Loves Company is mostly me winging it tbh
> 
> Go with the flow on that one meanwhile this one has a more defined storyline 
> 
> Also one of my favorite things to write in this story is Wels being like a second older sibling to NPC Grian it's really wholesome


	37. [Question!]

And please actually answer it lmao

Ok so on Wattpad I have this separate book that I use for lore, hidden details/info, backstories, fun facts, and vice versa for Not From Around Here

I update it every now and again when I have something I want to add to it—

So what i wanna know is would you guys here be interested in that?

Now obviously it will contain spoilers, though some details will not be explicitly included or explained in the story itself. Some things will later appear, some have already appeared, some are hidden between the lines, so on and so fourth.

Do you guys want me to do that here too? Make a random lore book for NFAH? It's honestly really fun to come up with lore and details so I'm curious if you guys wanna see some of the stuff I come up with for the characters 

I'm asking because I wanna verify that people would actually be interested in it and look at it

Also, some stuff might include potentially dark/triggering material but trust me I will put warnings, I always do, I try my best to

Some stuff is kind of joking too but most of it is legitimate, so far I've only posted one that was joking which was one about Biffa :P

But yeah would y'all wanna have something like that?


	38. Soon

* * *

Tomorrow was the big day.

Well, one of _many_ big days to come in this war.

Tomorrow would be the first battle—the first time the two teams would be pitted against each other in combat. The first test to see what everyone was dealing with, what they were up against.

And despite it all being started by pranks, this war was no joke. There would be _real_ combat, _real_ fighting, and _real_ risks. 

This was no laughing matter.

Scar cleared his throat. "Everyone, may I have your attention, please?"

All eyes turned to him.

"Thank you. As you all know, today is the final day of the ceasefire. The flag will be brought down tomorrow, and the first battle will begin. Make your preparations tonight and be ready. As it already seems, both teams have finished their bases."

Everyone looked briefly at both bases. Sure enough, they looked complete.

Glancing at Wels, Grian couldn't help but notice they looked rather tired. Their face was expressionless and practically dead, yet it showed that they seemed drained of all energy.

He shook his head, returning his focus back to Scar as he spoke to the group.

"Be prepared. And remember: if any of you _truly_ fear for your life, we have Totum of Undying charms that can be given to you. All you have to do is ask. Is everyone clear on all of this?"

"Yes, sir," they all said.

"Good. The rest of the day is yours to prepare. Do what you must." 

With that, both teams began walking back to their bases, though Grian stayed back a bit as he saw Wels remaining where they were.

A few seconds after everyone else walked away, Wels let out a heavy sigh, rubbing their eyes. Xisuma patted their back as he lead them away as well. 

"Uhm," Grian rubbed the back of his neck. "Are they alright, X?"

The admin gave a small sigh himself. "They decided not to get much rest last night."

"Sleep is for the weak." Wels yawned as X pushed them along.

"Okay, Welsie." Xisuma rolled his eyes.

Cleo snorted as she walked up to Grian. "Those two." She threw an arm around the angel, swinging him around. "Alrighty then, you ready for tomorrow, G-man?"

Grian smiled. "Yeah. Let's hope everyone else is."

"I wouldn't worry too much. I know these idiots will do well."

"Even still, we're up against some of the strongest hermits here."

"Worrying like that is what will get you killed!" Cleo flicked Grian's nose. "We'll be fine! Besides, they're still outnumbered. What've they got—a sleepless elf, an admin and his trigger happy demon brother, a badass chick with a sword and some mutt? Hah! We can do _way_ better."

Although, it didn't hurt, Grian rubbed his nose before sighing. "You're right—we'll be fine."

Cleo clapped her hands. "That's the spirit!"

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope your ready for the sass coming in the next chapter let's just say putting two sworn enemies on the same team and keeping it that way was a very poor choice though that was a bit obvious


	39. [EXTRA] Dear Theodosia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ao3 exclusive extra :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real quick I'm gonna note because not everyone read the lore book:
> 
> Xavi refers to Wels as mama, papa, and baba, as in alternating between the three because they're fine with all 3

* * *

Grian paused as he heard the faint sound of someone singing as he was taking a brief walk around. It was a very familiar voice as well.

Glancing over, he saw Wels there, holding their daughter close as tears rolled down both their cheeks. 

Grian listened as Wels sang the gentle tune;

_"My father wasn't around_   
_I swear that I'll be around for you_   
_I'll do whatever it takes_   
_I'll make a million mistakes_   
_I'll make the world safe and sound for you—"_

They smiled bitterly, rubbing Xavi's arm comfortingly.

_"—Will come of age with our young nation_   
_We'll bleed and fight for you_   
_We'll make it right for you_   
_If we lay a strong enough foundation_   
_We'll pass it onto you"_

Xavi wrapped her arms around Wels, burying her face in their shoulder. They rubbed gentle circles in her back as they leaned their head against hers. 

_"We'll give the world to you _   
_And you'll blow us all away._

_Some day, _ _some day..."_

Their voice cracked as they sang the last line, hugging their daughter tightly as they cried.

"I promise you I'll be okay, kiddo. You know that," they whispered, smiling. "I'm a knight, remember?"

Xavi lifted her head slightly before moving back and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "I-I know," she mumbled, sniffling. "I'm s-till scared. What if you d-didn't come back, mama?"

"I wouldn't leave you, honey." Wels pressed a kiss to her forehead before pulling her into another gentle hug. "I would never even _think _of doing that. I'll be okay. Besides, you know what happened last time. I'm not going anywhere."

Grian felt pangs of guilt and sadness in his heart. Wels never wanted to be a part of this—especially with the side they were stuck on. 

They were one of the people with the most to lose if something permanently fatal happened. They had a daughter to look after and care for. They never wanted to get caught up in something like this, and now their daughter has to fear for their life and safety.

It's cruel—forcing the poor kid to have to ignore the possibility of Wels' death. She has to tell herself that Wels will come back home and be alright afterwards. She has to trust them to do that. 

She'd be losing all she had if she lost Wels. 

Silently walking away, Grian tried to shake the thoughts away.

There was no way in _hell_ he'd go after Wels during all of this. Especially not when they had a promise to keep to their daughter. 

Hell, he didn't _want_ to go after _anyone_ here. 

But they had no choice at this point. 

No one was backing down. No one was opting out. 

Not even Wels, despite the risk they're taking. They're already so weak. It wouldn't be too difficult for one bad injury to be the end of them.

Grian shuddered at the thought. He was sure Xavi had similar thoughts to drown out. It was cruel to have a child carrying such harsh possibilities on her shoulders, having to fear that she might never see her guardian again. 

This whole war was cruel. But they were going through with it.

Everyone had to be strong, and Grian needed to be strong too.

He had to be strong for everyone else. 

He was done being weak.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to include a bit with Wels singing Dear Theodosia to Xavi before the war so I did
> 
> Also gives you a little hint hint about part of Wels' backstory 
> 
> Not only the song but also something they say to Xavi


	40. Enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH THE AMOUNT OF SNARK IN THIS CHAPTER IT'S GLORIOUS

* * *

Today was the day.   
  


After this quick meeting, the first battle would begin.  
  


Everyone had their plans made, everyone was ready. They had to be.   
  


Looking over both teams once more, Scar clapped his hands. "Alright, is everyone all prepped and ready to begin?"  
  


They all nodded.  
  


  
"Good. Remember: You may use any means necessary to fight or make your way over to the other team's base. We ask that you try not to uh..._kill_ each other. It's not breaking any rules—it's just not that necessary. I know some of you are very capable of hurting people, but please try to refrain from causing fatal injuries."  
  
  


On Team STAR's side, Doc snorted.   
  


  
"If one of the people you mean is Welsie, I wouldn't be worried about them. They've downgraded to the strength of an _ant_." He glanced mockingly at them. "Besides, they already look dead if you ask me."  
  
  


Immediately, Wels lunged at him, but Xisuma held them back once more.   
  


Doc barked a laugh. "Nice try."

  
  


"Fuck you," Wels hissed. "You're lucky Xisuma is here otherwise you _know_ I'd be dropkicking your ass all the way to the Aether."  
  


"Sucks for you that you that he's got a leash around your neck then."  
  


Annoyed, Xisuma let go of Wels. "You know what, have at it."  
  


And, in an instant after that, Wels punched Doc square in the face with as much force as possible, moving too quickly for him to get a chance to dodge.  
  


A few others grimaced as they heard the harsh impact and watched Doc nearly fall to the ground, covering his nose as it began bleeding profusely.  
  


Wels smiled sarcastically and shrugged. "Whoopsie, my hand slipped," they said in a mocking tone.  
  


"You cocky bastard," Doc growled.  
  


"So Doc, how does it feel being decked by a walking corpse, hm?"  
  


Just then, Doc elbowed Wels hard in the face.   
  


Their smile widened as they let the blood drip from their nose. "Oh, I'm _sorry_, did I strike a nerve in your face there?"  
  


"I'm about to _turn_ you into a damn corpse that can't even _walk_ in a minute."  
  


"I'd like to see you try, asshat."  
  


_"Enough." _Cub said sternly. "Both of you, cut it out."  
  


Wels got back in line, tilting their head back ever so slightly, the smile staying on their face. "Yes, sir."  
  


Cub glared at Doc, who sighed heavily before getting back in line.  
  


Scar shook his head. "_Honestly_, you two."  
  
  


  
NPC Grian moved back a bit, hiding behind Grian, who ruffled his hair reassuringly. The angel thought he was only afraid of the two fighting, but he also seemed a bit intimidated by a figure on the opposite team staring at him.  
  
  


Grian found out that person was Xisuma's brother—"Evil Xisuma", or Ex. He seemed a bit more intimidating than he really was—turns out he was actually a huge softie.   
  


According to Xisuma, that is.   
  


And, well, everyone else. He was given the title of evil, but apparently went soft.   
  


"Ugh." Scar face palmed. "You know, this war is supposed to be G-team against Team STAR, not Team STAR member against Team STAR member."  
  


"Not my fault he's pissing me off," Doc growled.  
  


"They," Xisuma corrected.  
  


The cyborg scoffed. "Whatever. _They're_ pissing me off."  
  


"Boo-hoo, you're the one who seems to enjoy picking fights with me," Wels snapped.

  
  


"Enough, you two." False smacked Doc upside the head. 

  
"Moving on," Cub interjected. "The first battle will start soon. Stick to your plans, you've had plenty of time to prepare. The battle will go on until one side retreats, or the other claims victory." He glared at Wels and Doc. "And keep the fighting between the two teams, not your own teams."   
  
  


Wels rolled their eyes. "Tell that to dipshit over here."  
  


"Piss off," Doc bit back.  
  


Out of nowhere, they were both struck square in the face by a rock.   
  


And the part that was most odd—NPC threw them.  
  


"Well that's a new one," Ex snorted, then being elbowed by his brother.  
  


"Cut it out!" NPC pouted. "You two fight too much."  
  


Wels chuckled. "Sorry, kiddo."   
  


Doc grumbled. "Throwing a damn rock at me..."  
  


"Oh, suck it up you little bitch, would you rather me throw you off a cliff?" 

  
  


_"ENOUGH,"_ Xisuma yelled.

  
  


Cub sighed. "We're never gonna get anywhere with this—go to your battle stations, let's get this over with." He waved them all away, returning to the Convex's watching platform with Scar.

Grian glanced at Mumbo, who only shrugged.  
  
  


Instead of arguing even more, both teams made their way over to their bases. 

  
  


It was finally time to begin.

* * *


	41. We're All Professionals Here.

* * *

"Watch out!"

Grian ducked out of the way as a fireball flew right at him. 

Apparently, Impulse had stolen a ghast from the Nether, which was _entirely_ unexpected. Admittedly, he was pretty good at getting it to fire at them.

As for G-team's plan, well....

They uh...didn't have a very good one.

Pretty much everyone on Grian's team had little to no experience with war. As for Team STAR, well—they were pretty damn good.

"Move over, G!" Jevin yelled, practically leaping over him to get closer to the other base.

Tango followed behind, punching some of Impulse's fireballs back at him as if it were a game of volleyball.

"Ugh," Grian pushed himself off the ground, quickly ducking back down as an arrow flew right past him. 

"Remember, Grian!" Joe called to him as he ran by. "Float like a guardian, sting like a dolphin!"

"That doesn't make any damn sense, you idiot!" Cleo yelled, charging at Xisuma. 

"Come on, Grian! You can do better than that!" Ex chuckled, dragging Grian off the ground and throwing him a short distance. 

The angel grimaced, quickly standing up. 

Ex smirked. "Hell, your brother's doin better, and X tells me he doesn't even know how to fight!"

"He's what—?" Grian glanced around. Sure enough, NPC was doing pretty well...

...chucking...TNT at Team STAR's base.

But hey! It was working. 

"Eyes up." Ex lunged at him, sword being blocked by Grian's. "This is a _war_, dude! Get out there and fight!" 

"Wait!"

Ex began running towards the G-team base, dodging out of the way of Stress. 

Grian chased after him, attempting to aim with his bow. 

And then...he ran into Mumbo. 

"Oh! Geez, I'm sorry Grian!" The redstoner helped him up. 

Grian took a moment to shoot an arrow at Ex, narrowly missing. Lucky for him, though, Stress was on the guy's tail.

"Ugh—You're fine, Mumbo." 

"S-sorry, I'm not very good at this."

"Well, neither am I, so that makes two of us," Grian smiled reassuringly. He quickly dragged Mumbo behind a tree and handed him a potion.

"Listen, take this potion and go inside, I need you to flip the switch—you remember where it is?"

"Oh, y-yes, I remember where it's at—"

"Good," Grian shoved the potion into Mumbo's hand. _"Hurry."_

Mumbo nodded, chugging the potion that soon made him invisible. 

Grian turned his attention back to the others. 

"Watch out," a voice called to him before a sword almost came down on his head. With a yelp, he held up his sword, which clashed with Wels'.

"Stay alert, dude!" The elf chuckled before running off. 

"Ah, r-right!" Grian glanced around before making his way over to where Iskall was—fighting with Ren it seemed. 

He ducked behind a tree, taking aim with his bow. It was a bit difficult to aim when the two kept moving around, but he managed to get a couple shots in. 

"Iskall, move!"

Grian chucked a potion of harming at Ren, which landed right by him on the ground. Iskall had dodged out of the way, leaping over the moat around the team's base.

"Nice shots, Gri!" Iskall gave him a pat on the back. 

The angel smiled, taking a quick glance at the battlefield. Only a few of his teammates were still over there. 

"Hey guys!" He called out, motioning for his teammates to come back over.

Just then, a hoard of zombies began appearing seemingly out of nowhere, flooding the other team's area. 

The G-team began regrouping, watching as the other team struggled to fend off all of the zombies. 

Once most of the zombies were taken care of, Xisuma sighed. "Fall back, guys!" 

Scar blew a whistle, raising his hand in the air. "Team STAR retreats—G-team claims victory in this battle!" 

Grian smiled as his teammates cheered, sharing high fives and fist bumps. 

"I will say, that ghast did quite a bit of damage to the G-team's base," Cub noted. "Then again, that little NPC over there is good at throwing TNT."

NPC Grian giggled. "It was fun!" 

Grian ruffled his hair. "Good job, little bro."

"Man, that was a nice trick there, G-man," Ren admitted as Team STAR began gathering together.

"That ghast cannon was a kickass idea." Jevin chuckled. "I doubt we would have been able to pull that off."

"Surprised the corpse didn't give out during battle." Doc snorted.

"Stuff it, old man," Wels growled. 

"Hey, I'm not an old man!"

"Oh, _sorry—_is 'old bitch' better for you?" 

"Don't start, you two." Ex punched them both in the face—gently.

Xisuma face palmed, shaking his head.

Scar cleared his throat. "Moving on, good work, all of you. You did well." 

"Hopefully you're all aware of what you're up against now," Cub took over. "You now have complete freedom to do as you wish—continue making plans, trap your base or try to trap the other team's, and so on."

"Yes sir," everyone replied. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pure chaos I cant tell if its actually good some parts are okay lol
> 
> I'm very bad at writing combat lmao
> 
> Also admittedly I uh. 
> 
> Forgot what G-team's plan was if they even had one besides the zombies.
> 
> So I just—woosh, chaos.


	42. What Now?

* * *

"Quite an odd victory, don't you think?" Joe chuckled as they all entered the base.

"Well, a win's a win," Jevin replied.

Grian smiled, joining the others with NPC Grian trailing behind him. "We're lucky we had that zombie trick, otherwise we would have lost for sure."

"So what if Team STAR's got strong people? We got brains!" Cleo punched her fists together. "We outsmarted them once, we can do it again!"

"Can we really, though?" Mumbo tilted his head. "I mean, how long until we run out of ideas to—"

"Aw, come on, Mumbo! You know we got this!" Tango interrupted, throwing his arm around Mumbo's shoulder. 

"I know! I'm just—w-what if they see through our tricks, or—or they come up with even better plans?"

"To hell with their plans, dude!" Iskall exclaimed. "They're outnumbered anyway!"

"Ah, Mumbo does have a point though," Grian interjected. "Our plans aren't guaranteed to work—besides, it's always possible that they could outsmart us."

"Have some confidence, luv!" Stress smiled. "We got this!"

Grian shook his head, smiling. "Alright, alright. I know. We have to remember, though—this is only the beginning. We have no clue what might be coming next."

"We got this, don't worry, G." Jevin gave Grian's shoulder a friendly pat. 

"What now, though?"

"We could work on trapping the place," Tango suggested. "Hell, we have no clue when they're going to strike next." 

"I've got another idea." Joe raised his hand. "One of us could do some spying on the other team. Maybe figure out their plans."

Grian hummed. "Maybe, but who would do it?" 

Next to him, NPC silently pointed to Mumbo. 

"Wait—you're trying to suggest _me?_ Oh, no—no, no, _no_, that is a _disaster_ waiting to happen," Mumbo protested, holding up his hands.

"It's worth a shot, right? Won't get better unless you practice!" Iskall playfully punched Mumbo's shoulder. "How bad could it be? Sneak over there with some invisibility potions, do a little eavesdropping—you can be the perfect spy—of doom!"

"Alright, it's settled then! Mumbo will spy on the other team while we trap this place!" Tango chuckled.

Mumbo glanced around nervously. "Now, wait a minute—!"

"Someone could go with you," Grian suggested. "Stress, maybe?"

"Yeah! I can come with you and make sure it goes smoothly!" Stress smiled, turning to Mumbo.

The redstoner gave a defeated sigh. "A-alright, fine."

Cleo clapped her hands. "Great! It's settled then. I'll get you some potions."

"Alright, so we all know what we're doing now," Grian mumbled. "Let's get to it, then."

* * *


	43. Uh Oh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUCK FUCK FUCK I FORGOT TO EVEN ADD THIS CHAPTER HERE OH MY G O D

* * *

"Mission failed, mission failed—" Mumbo yelled as he reached the top of the bubble elevator. 

Everyone else paused what they were doing, attention turning to Mumbo, and soon Stress as well.

"Not a complete failure!" Stress added. "We overhead at least one plan they had."

"Wait, what happened?" Grian tilted his head.

"Ah—the potions wore off, then Xisuma's brother tried to kill us. And False," Mumbo answered.

Cleo snorted. "Told you to take more than one each!"

Joe motioned for the two to take a seat at the table. "What did you find out?"

"Well—"

Suddenly, the large window in the front of the room was shattered as someone flew into it, breaking the glass with their boot. It took everyone a second to recognize the figure as Ex.

NPC Grian's eyes flashed red. "Danger, danger!!"

Before anyone could react, Ex landed on the floor, immediately jumping onto the table and dropkicking Mumbo.

Jevin quickly pulled out his bow and fired at Ex as quickly as he could, getting a few hits in. 

Ex growled, pulling out a piece of TNT and igniting it in his hand before throwing it onto the table.

Everyone shielded themselves as best they could as the explosion went off, destroying the table and a good chunk of the floor.

Ex grabbed ahold of Mumbo, sprinting to the window.

"I'm taking this with me," he yelled, leaping through the hole in the window and flying back over to Team STAR's base.

Iskall ran to the window. "Mumbo!" 

Tango grimaced as he got up off the floor, assisting a few of the others.

Grian took a moment to catch his breath. "Are you guys okay?"

"A little bit of a scratch but I'm alright," Joe said.

"Same here." Jevin took a moment to make sure his wings weren't injured.

Grian sighed. "Well, I guess on the bright side we know one of Team STAR's plans, right?"

"Oh! Yes, we do!" Stress perked up a bit. "Mumbo and I overheard them discussing some sort of plan to sneak into our base—they're gonna tunnel underneath and find a way in."

"Do you know when they're going to?"

Stress nodded. "Tonight."

"Wait, _tonight?"_ Tango cut in. "Do we have enough time to prepare for it?"

"Maybe," Grian mumbled.

Cleo's face lit up. "Oh! I have an idea!"

Iskall raised an eyebrow. "That quickly?" 

"Trust me, boys—and fair lady Stress—I know how we can get back at them once they're in."

"Well, I doubt anyone else has any ideas." Grian sighed. "Alright, let's hear it."

* * *


	44. Bananas

* * *

"So um—why, uh, w-why am I coming along with you...?"

Wels sighed tiredly as they trailed behind the others up front, dragging Mumbo along. "Hell if I know, dude. Maybe they thought you'd fuck up our base if we left you alone or somethin."

Mumbo rubbed the back of his neck. "That's a large overestimation of my capability to do damage to anything."

"Exactly—no offense."

"None taken."

"Almost there," Xisuma said, continuing to dig out the tunnel leading to the G Team base. 

At one point, all of their communicators buzzed, but only a few of them checked the message.

_<TangoTek> Hey, what's a yellow fruit?_

_<Welsknight> Um...pineapple._

_<Mumbo Jumbo> Bananas?_

_<Joehills> Blueberries._

_<ZombieCleo> For fuck's sake, Joe._

As Mumbo replied, Grian signaled for the others to take their positions up in the armor stand displays.

"Stress, get the wolves ready," he whispered before drinking his potion.

Once everyone had found a display window, they drank their potions and put on the suits of armor afterwards, making it seem like they were just displays.

The other team finished their tunnel, which lead right over to the front door.

Doc turned to Mumbo. _"You_ can open the door for us."

"Why me?" Mumbo questioned.

False sighed. "I dunno, genius, maybe because it's _your_ team's base? Besides, we don't know if you trapped it or not, so you can do it."

Wels rolled their eyes, moving past the others. "Ugh—move." 

Then, with one swift kick, they broke the door down.

"Voila," they deadpanned, entering the base, the others following.

As the group looked around, they didn't see anyone else there, nor did they find anything interesting on the first floor.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Impulse whispered to Xisuma.

The admin merely shrugged. 

Then, out of nowhere, a trident came flying at them, landing right in front of Mumbo, who yelped.

The others turned to him, but had no time to react before another trident was launched at them, then another, and another after that, along with a few arrows.

Though they mostly dodged everything, a couple of them still got hit—not much, but it was something.

"What the hell," Doc mumbled.

"I think we've been bamboozled, my dudes," Ren said, only to be smacked upside the head by False after.

"God, ya think?" She huffed.

Grumbling as they pulled an arrow out of their shoulder, Wels' ears perked up. They grabbed Xisuma and made a beeline for the door as they heard the sound of wolves growling. 

They grabbed Xisuma by the collar of his chestplate and made a beeline for the door as they heard the sound of wolves growling. "Shit, run—_run."_

Xisuma yelped as Wels dragged him along with them as they ran. "Wels, wait—!"

"What, you want me to drop you? Have fun," Wels yelled quickly, letting go of Xisuma as they continued to run.

Xisuma dodged out of the way as a wolf came running at him, barely missing as it attempted to leap at him.

He scrambled to his feet, running to catch up to Wels as the others attempted to evade the wolves. "Nevermind—_nevermind!"_

"That's what'cha get for stealing Mumbo and sneaking in!" Stress yelled as she watched Doc and Impulse trying to run from the wolves, Ren already having bolted out the door.

As soon as the others made their escape, Stress went around giving all of the wolves praise and fur ruffles—all while Mumbo sat there a bit dumbfounded.

"I know you guys had a plan, but I didn't expect _that."_

Grian snickered as the option's effects faded. "All Cleo's idea."

"Told you it was a good plan!" Cleo smiled.

"It _was_ quite brilliant," Mumbo admitted. "I didn't know what to expect since the most you did was whisper that signal to me in chat."

"Well hey, at least it worked!" Tango chuckled.

"Did you guys finish with the traps?" 

"Almost. We planned to set one up at the front door," Grian replied. "And speaking of which, um...what..._happened_ to the front door?"

Everyone glanced at the front door, and sure enough, it was gone—well, not gone, but laying on the floor.

"Oh, um—Wels did that."

Cleo snorted. "Of course."

Grian shook his head. "Anyways—soon we'll have a lady to answer the front door for us! Her name is Gertrude, she'll throw potions at anyone who rings the doorbell and insult them on a piece of paper."

"Should probably mention that she's a witch," Jevin said. 

Grian nodded. "Just make sure none of you ring the front doorbell once we have her in place."

"Oh, and I fixed the meeting room," Iskall said. "Hopefully we won't have to deal with Xisuma's brother crashing into it again."

"Ooo, ooo!" NPC exclaimed, raising his hand. "I wanna do something!"

"Oh, do you have an idea, NPC?" Grian turned to his little brother. 

"I wanna get back at the other team!"

"Er, how?"

"TNT!!" NPC giggled.

"I'm sorry, what?" 

NPC's face lit up. "TNT! I can throw TNT at their base!"

"Is that...really a good idea, though—?"

"Aw, c'mon, let him have a little fun." Jevin smiled, gently elbowing Grian. 

Grian glanced at Jevin, then back at NPC and sighed. "Fine, but be careful."

"Yes!!" NPC cheered, immediately pulling out a flint and steel and a piece of TNT, running out the door.

"Wait, he already had some?!" Tango questioned.

"Apparently," Joe mumbled. 

It only took around 5 minutes for NPC to wreak his havoc on the other team apparently, seeing as he returned rather quickly.

"I'm done!" He giggled.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a confession to make I keep forgetting I already wrote Ren into the store fUCK


	45. Go To Bed.

* * *

"Are we really allowed to right now?"

NPC Grian was sitting on the counter, swinging his legs back and forth while Grian dug through a few shulker boxes in the kitchen area.

"There's no set rules in here, NPC," Grian mumbled in response. "If you want a cookie you can have one even if it's late."

NPC giggled, clapping his hands. It brought a smile to Grian's face. 

"Here." Grian handed a cookie to his brother. "If you want more than one I can give you more."

NPC shook his head, breaking the cookie in half and holding one piece out.

Grian gave a small chuckle, taking the half that NPC handed him. NPC emitted a small happy noise before nibbling at the treat.

It didn't take either of them very long to finish it—sure, it was a decent sized cookie, but nothing too big. After letting NPC wash it down with a glass of milk, Grian lead his brother back to the sleeping area.

The others already went to sleep, despite it not being too late at the moment. 

NPC climbed onto the top bunk he slept in, curling up under the covers. One of the many cats scattered around the base was sleeping with him.

That was another thing. They managed to wrangle up a lot of cats. They just paid little to no mind to any of them considering they weren't needed for any plans. The only time they were acknowledged much was when they were fed and wanted attention.

After climbing into bed as well, Grian remained sitting up. Pulling out his communicator, he typed into chat through a whisper to Wels.

_<Grian> Are you alright?_

He waited a moment. 

_<Welsknight> Could be worse. Why?_

_<Grian> Just wanted to make sure. _

_<Welsknight> Go to bed, mister._

He chuckled.

_<Grian> Hey, you're awake too._

_<Welsknight> ...Irrelevant. _

_<Welsknight> Goodnight, pal._

_<Grian> Night, Wels. You sure you're okay, though?_

_<Welsknight> I'm fine, Grian._

_<Grian> Alright._

Putting the device aside, he laid down with a small sigh. Knowing Wels, they probably wouldn't get proper sleep—if they did, it wouldn't help much. 

He shook his head.

It didn't matter right now. 

He closed his eyes, trying his best to fall asleep.

* * *


	46. [EXTRA] Empty Chairs At Empty Tables

* * *

Grian sighed, staring at the ceiling. 

He couldn't sleep. He didn't know why, he just couldn't.

Groaning quietly, he sat up in bed, trying not to disturb any of the others as he climbed down from the top bunk. Everyone shared a bunk bed just to help conserve space—his in particular was shared with Jevin. 

The angel stretched as he slipped out the door, footsteps echoing throughout the relatively open area as he walked across the smooth concrete floor, evading the few cats that were sleeping there. Rather than using the front door, he decided he would go up to the roof and simply fly down—much less noisy. Besides, Gertrude would scold him for it.

He proceeded up the bubble elevator, passing the other floors until he reached the top. 

He walked over to the edge, leaning against the wall around the perimeter. He closed his eyes, enjoying the way the wind blew gently through his hair, even weaving itself through some of his feathers. 

After a few seconds, the angel smiled. 

Though, he swore he heard the faint sound of someone singing.

_"There's a grief that can't be spoken,"_

Opening his eyes again, he noticed a figure sitting in the middle of the battlefield, though he was too far away to make out their features. 

_"There's a pain goes on and on,"_

Quietly, he climbed onto the surrounding wall and glided down to the ground, the sound getting more distinct as he approached a landing.

_"Empty chairs at empty tables,_   
_Now my friends are dead and gone,"_

Ducking behind a tree, he determined that the figure there was Wels. They were staring up at the moon with their back turned to him, singing a gentle tune;

_"Here they spoke of revolution_   
_Here it was they lit the flame_   
_Here they sang about tomorrow, and tomorrow never came,"_

Cautiously, Grian stepped closer, trying his best not to make any noise. Even still, he saw the elf's ears flicker slightly, as if to acknowledge his presence, but pay no mind to it.

_"From the table in the corner_   
_They could see a world reborn_   
_And they rose with voices ringing,"_

Gradually, they rose in volume, though Grian could hear the sorrow in their voice—the grief, and the tears they were shedding, although he couldn't see it.

_"And I can hear them now_   
_The very words that they have sung_   
_Became their last communion_   
_On this lonely barricade, at dawn,"_

Grian frowned as their voice lowered once more, and he even heard it crack slightly. They lowered their head, hugging themself tightly.

_"Oh my friends, my friends forgive me_   
_That I live and you are gone_   
_There's a grief that can't be spoken_   
_And there's a pain goes on and on—"_

And once more, their voice rose as they looked up at the moon, tears streaming down their face.

_"Phantom faces at the window_   
_Phantom shadows on the floor_   
_Empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will meet no more,"_

He could hear them sobbing through their singing.

_"Oh my friends, my friends don't ask me_   
_What your sacrifice was for_   
_Empty chairs at empty tables_   
_Where my friends will sing—"_

Their voice broke.

_"...no more..."_

Grian felt his heart shatter as Wels let out a sob, curling up with their knees up to their chest, hiding their face in their arms and crying.

He slowly approached them, kneeling down and resting his hand gently on their back. 

The angel knew Wels had a rough past—even if he didn't know every detail of it. He couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain they went through, how much grief and sorrow they still had trapped inside of them that would forever remain. 

Whatever happened, he knew it was awful. Even if he would never know what it was like for them. 

He sighed, wrapping his arms around Wels, the elf curling up against his chest, sobbing.

"I'm sorry, Wels."

* * *


	47. [EXTRA]

* * *

Grian heard a soft chuckle after a while—it'd been a couple minutes after Wels calmed down.

"What happened to sleeping?" Wels whispered, smiling. 

Grian shook his head lightly. "I could ask you the same. I couldn't sleep."

"And neither could I."

"Then neither of us can scold each other for it, huh?"

Wels let out a quiet laugh. "I guess not."

With a small sigh, Grian smiled, leaning his head gently against Wels'. He wrapped his wings around them as well.

"You always do that," Wels mumbled, leaning further against Grian's shoulder. "Wrapping your wings around me like that, and to others."

Grian shrugged lightly. "It's just something about doing it that helps with comforting people."

"Well, it works."

"And that's why I do it. 

Sighing contently, Wels closed their eyes. "You're great, pal."

"You're greater," Grian replied.

The elf hummed. "Nooo, I think you are."

"And I think you are."

"Agree to disagree?"

Grian chuckled. "Fine."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even if you interpret this as platonic it's just so fucking cute 🥺


	48. Um...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Potential TW for repeated death and also lightning,,

* * *

Grian opened his eyes as he felt something bumping against his hand.

Sitting up, he saw one of the cats staring at him, purring. 

He smiled, giving it a gentle scratch behind the ear before yawning. Glancing around, it seemed he had woken up before everyone else did. 

_Might as well go back to sleep._

Before he did, he picked up his communicator to peek at chat.

And holy _hell._

  
_[Docm77 was slain by Welsknight]_

_[Docm77 was shot by Welsknight]_

_[Welsknight was struck by lighting summoned by Docm77's trident.]_

_[Docm77 was shot by Welsknight.]_

_<Evil Xisuma> Jesus christ, you two._

_[Welsknight was struck by lightning summoned by Docm77's trident.]_

_[Docm77 was slain by Welsknight.]_

_[Evil Xisuma changed weather to clear.]_

_<Evil Xisuma> Enough of the fucking lightning_

_<Falsesymmetry> Chill out, you two._

_[Docm77 was slain by Welsknight.]_

_<Falsesymmetry> Guys, it's midnight, my gosh._

_[Welsknight was slain by Evil Xisuma.]_

_[Docm77 was slain by Evil Xisuma.]_

_<Evil Xisuma> Cut it out. _

_<Docm77> That bastard started it._

_<Welsknight> thAt bAstaRd stArtEd iT fuck you._

_<Docm77> Screw off._

_<Falsesymmetry> Both of you shut it and go to sleep._

_<Xisumavoid> Why did no one wake me up to handle this_

_<Welsknight> Sorry X._

_<Xisumavoid> Do you need to sleep in my room or something, Wels?_

_<Welsknight> Well, no, but I'd like to._

_<Xisumavoid> Whatever gets you two to quit fighting._

Grian stared with mild disbelief at the screen. 

Shaking his head, he whispered to Wels in chat.

_<Grian> Um, Wels, you sure you're okay?_

He didn't expect a response, seeing as it was apparently earlier than he thought it was. 

_<Welsknight> No_

Nevermind then.

_<Grian> You need to talk or anything?_

_<Welsknight> I don't know. You've heard enough of my yapping anyway, go back to sleep._

_<Grian> I don't mind, Wels._

_<Welsknight> Go back to sleep anyway._

_<Grian> Talk later?_

_<Welsknight> Only if you go back to bed, mister._

_<Grian> Alright, alright._

Grian smiled, turning his communicator off and setting it aside once more. He laid back down, the cat next to him moving to curl up on his chest.

Just a little more sleep. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And just like Grian I'm going to bed its 7:30 AM and I have been awake since uuuhhh around 11 pm and I have very little energy and I'm either dissociating so hard that I feel tired or I'm so tired that I'm dissociating because both are likely


	49. Smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential TW for lightning mentions and slight description of eye gore/eye injury?? Not too detailed but yeah
> 
> This is a really sweet chapter

* * *

Stepping outside, Grian took a big breath of fresh morning air.

He looked around, approaching the tired and grumpy elf as he spotted them sitting up against a nearby tree. They seemed to have a bandage over their eye, along with a few others.

"Stupid question but are you okay, Wels?" Grian asked as he sat down in front of them.

"Fucking eye hurts," they growled. "Dipshit just had to use lightning—I guess it's on me for fighting the dumbass in the rain, but still."

"Wait, he hit you in the _eye_?"

"Mmh," Wels grumbled, pulling the bandage up for a moment.

Grian grimaced as he saw the slight marks left behind from the trident hitting them in the eye. And their eye looked awful—it was red and looked like it had streaks of lightning going through it almost. He even saw where it was bleeding before.

"Yeah." Wels sighed, pulling the bandage back down. "It hurts like hell, but Xisuma said it should heal up soon enough."

Grian frowned. He noticed a few other marks all over Wels that seemed to resemble lightning. It looked rather painful—like they'd be sore for quite a while.

Wels lifted their head up slightly. "Hey." They reached forward, patting Grian's face lightly. "None of that, now. Smile."

"Wels—"

"No-no. C'mon. Smile, Grian."

"Wels, it's hard to smile when you're hurt."

Wels gave him a somewhat bitter smile. "Come on, Gri. Just smile for Welsie. Please?"

And although he was still a bit unhappy, Grian smiled anyway. 

"There you go." Wels' smile widened as they pulled Grian into a hug. "Keep smiling, pal. Don't let me take that away from you."

Grian gave a small sigh, leaning into the hug as he wrapped his arms around Wels. "I'll try."

"Good," Wels whispered. "I always like it when you smile."

"I wish I would get to see you smile more," Grian mumbled. 

Wels gave his hair a quick ruffle. "I know. I wish I could smile more for you, and for everybody else."

They pulled away, keeping their hands on Grian's shoulders. "But like I said—don't let that keep you from smiling. Okay?"

Grian nodded. "Okay."

"Good." Wels patted both his arms. "Now then, you oughta get back to your teammates."

"What about you?"

"I'm fine to just chill out here for a moment." Wels chuckled. "I'll be alright."

"If you insist, but you can always let me know if you need anything," Grian said, slight concern in his voice.

"I know. I'll let you know if I need to," Wels replied. "Now then, off ya go."

Grian gave them a small wave after standing up. 

And once more, they gave him a smile.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I should note is that this story is sort of shifting into a new focus, aka the connections Grian makes with others and the way he works to overcome conflicts or helps others overcome their own conflicts. This story has never had the most clear plot to follow and was never meant to just be about Grian, so I wanna make sure everyone knows that it's more so about how Grian grows/changes and how he connects with some of the others if that makes any sense.


	50. Awful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty lame chapter I apologize

* * *

"Morning, Gertrude," Grian said as he paused by the front door.   
  


The witch simply glanced at him before throwing a crumpled slip of up paper at his head.  
  


He paused for a moment before picking it up off the ground and opening it back up.  
  


_'You need a shower.'_   
  


He glanced at his wings before scowling at the witch. "Hey, they're not that dirty." He tucked the paper away into his pocket before entering through the newly-repaired door and joining the others in the dining area.  
  


"Good lord," he heard Iskall mutter.  
  


"What's up?" Grian asked as he entered.   
  


Iskall simply pointed to Mumbo, who seemed a bit embarrassed. After a moment, he turned to the redstoner. "Go on, tell him what you did."  
  


"I, um—" Mumbo sighed. "I may have mistakenly poured myself a bowl of redstone instead of cereal."  
  


Stress held back a laugh, meanwhile Cleo wasn't afraid to.   
  
  


Grian was a bit dumbfounded. "How did you even—what?"  
  
  


"It's Mumbo, what else would you expect?" Jevin joked.   
  


NPC Grian giggled. "Mumby Dumby."

Iskall laughed almost hysterically._ "Mumby Dumby,_ oh my goodness."   
  


"It's alright Mumbo, you're just a bit silly." Grian chuckled, walking over and patting Mumbo's back.   
  


After getting Mumbo a proper bowl of cereal and finishing up breakfast, everyone made their way up to the meeting room. Thankfully, it was all fixed up, though Iskall seemed to have put iron bars behind the window. 

"Sooo, does anyone have any sort of idea what to do next?" Tango asked. 

"Nope," Jevin responded.

"I got nothin' this time," Cleo said.

A few others merely shook their heads.

"Well, uh—this isn't really a plan, but—" Mumbo jumped in. "When Stress and I were over by the other team's base, we saw that they added guardians to little stations near the moat. Held them in place with minecarts and blocked them in."  
  


Tango blinked. "They what now?"  
  


"Yeah, those things almost got us too," Stress added. "They could still track us and tried to laser beam us even with the potion active."  
  


Grian hummed. "That gives me an idea—what if we make a sort of railway circling around their base and move the guardians up there?"  
  


"That is an incredibly good way to die," Joe said.   
  


Cleo snorted. "Yeah."  
  


"How horribly could it go?" Grian shrugged. "Maybe I could pull it off."

"If you're dead set on doing it then go for it," Iskall said with a slight chuckle. "Have fun."  
  


And with that, Grian went to carry out his plan.  
  


He went over to Team STAR's base, managing to build up the whole railway without being spotted.   
  


However, when he went to move the guardians, he realized he forgot a rail.

And then the guardians went flying into the moat.

* * *


	51. Really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I forgot to post this chapter beforehand and on Wattpad I quickly realized that I did not post this chapter before I posted the next chapter in which theres a whole ass battle oh my god

* * *

After quickly fleeing back to the G Team base, Grian sighed as he stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by a few cats, who were sniffing at him curiously, wondering where that faint scent of fish was coming from. Needless to say, he was _not _going to be mentioning that utter failure to his teammates.

"Hey Grian—"

The angel jumped as he heard Cub's voice behind him. Quickly he turned around, confused. "Cub, when did you—"

"We've got another meeting with both teams in a few, alright?" Cub continued.

"I—um, okay—"

"Great!" Cub smiled. "See you guys in a bit."

"Cub, wait, I—" Grian stammered as he turned to leave. "When did you even get in here?!"

But Cub was already out the door. 

Dumbfounded, Grian sighed. "Well, I guess I'll tell the others."

* * *

Grian was a bit amused by the fact that Doc and Wels were kept on opposite sides of Team STAR's line. False was keeping a firm grip on Doc to keep him in place, and Xisuma was doing the same with Wels.

Shaking his head, he waited with everyone else for the Convex to show up and begin their meeting. It didn't take too long for them to show up, though, as they both came over a few minutes later.

"Alright, everyone." Scar clapped his hands. "Two things to address here. Number one: we've come up with a method to end this war."

"Both teams will design a flag and have three copies of it," Cub picked up. "This will be used for a sort of 'capture the flag' type game. Each team will hide all three flags in their base and use whatever means necessary to keep them safe and guarded. If the other team captures all three, they win the war."

"Now, here's the deal," Scar continued. "There will be a final battle if both teams are at a stalemate when it comes to the flags, meaning each team has two captured. In said battle, there are two methods of winning. Method one is to defeat the other team and force them into retreating or yielding. 

"The other method is for at least one of your teammates to make it into the other team's base where the final flag is hidden and capture the final flag. If you have ahold of the flag, you must make it clear that you've got it, and it must reach your team's base to claim victory. Is everyone clear on this?"

"Yes sir," they replied.

"Now, second order of business—" Cub motioned to the battlefield around them. "—is another battle that will commence soon."

Out of nowhere, Wels groaned. 

"Do we _have_ to? I'm too tired for this," they complained.

"Suck it up," Doc growled. 

"Don't start, you two." Impulse sighed. 

"Moving on," Scar interrupted. "Yes, Wels, we do. This battle will be a test to see how easily you can adapt without a plan. That way, if you're not quite prepared for the final battle, you'll have at least practiced improvising in a fight."

Doc snorted. "What, would we have to improvise after Wels fell asleep on the battlefield?"

Wels snapped their fingers, a flame in the form of a middle finger appearing above them directed towards Doc. On the other team's side, Tango held back a small chuckle, being elbowed by Iskall right after.

"What were your pronouns again? Stupid/Bitch?" Doc spat sarcastically.

"Actually I left that form blank on purpose—my pronouns are nothing, never refer to me."

Xisuma sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm seriously about to throw you both into the void."

"Hate to disappoint you, X, but Welsie and I already throw each other into the void for fun, remember?" Ex snickered.

Grian raised an eyebrow. "You what now?"

Ex shook his head, smiling. "Some other time, pal."

"Okay, okay—before we start with this again," Scar said with a sigh, holding up his hand. "Is everyone clear on the whole 'battle' thing?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. You have about 10 minutes to grab any necessary gear and come back out here afterwards for us to start. Alright?"

"Yes, sir," they all replied.

"Okay. You're all dismissed."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One big perk of having a nonbinary character in your story is that you get to throw in stupid gender jokes


	52. Plans? Nah.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Potential TW for blood and eye injuries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok NOW here we go

* * *

"So um...what's the plan—?"

Grian sighed, continuing to keep his eyes locked on target from behind the rock, arrow pulled back in his bow. "Mumbo, there _is_ no plan in this battle, remember?"

Mumbo glanced around nervously. "W-well you're making one up as you go, right?"

"Yes, and that means there's no real plan. We have to wing it."

The redstoner sighed. "This will be a disaster."

"Maybe," Grian mumbled. He waited a quick moment before releasing his shot, watching as the arrow flew through the air and struck Ren in the shoulder. Quickly, he ducked behind the rock to avoid being spotted.

"Are you even trying to look for someone to fight, Mumbo?"

Mumbo cleared his throat. "Oh, uhm—n-no—no I'm not." 

"Well then—" Grian gently pushed him out from behind the rock with a smile. "Have fun."

"Grian—!"

Mumbo yelped as an arrow narrowly missed him.

"Come on, Mumbo! Don't just stand there!" False yelled to him, already preparing another arrow.

As Mumbo ran off elsewhere, Grian peaked over the rock. Jevin and Tango seemed to be ambushing Impulse, meanwhile Stress was off dealing with some of the guardians in Team STAR's moat while trying to avoid Xisuma's attacks.

"Heads up," Ex yelled, hopping over the rock out of nowhere. Before Grian could react, Ex threw one of his daggers right at him, narrowly missing as it stabbed into the rock.

The half-demon chuckled. "Come on! This is a test of your improv abilities, right?"

Quickly, Grian pulled back the arrow in his bow, preparing to fire as Ex rushed at him. As soon as Ex came close, though, Grian pulled up his shield, blocking the attack before kicking him away. And before Ex could get up, Grian fired the arrow, which struck Ex's abdomen.

"Shit, dude—" Ex grimaced slightly, though he was smiling. "See? That's what I'm talkin' about."

Grian lowered his bow a bit. "Sorry."

Ex shook his head, pushing himself off the ground. He walked over to Grian and held his fist out. "Keep that up and you'll be just fine."

Smiling, Grian gave Ex his fist bump.

"Now then, I'm gonna leave you to it, G," Ex said, pulling his dagger from the rock before signing off.

Grian looked around a bit before he got a running start and took off into the air. From higher up, he surveyed the battlefield, keeping an arrow pulled back in his bow and ready to fire.

He spotted False knocking back Joe with her sword, seemingly rushing him down. Aiming carefully, Grian waited for a good opportunity to fire the arrow. However, False dodged out of the way of it.

As he was about to fire another, a trident came flying at him. He yelped as it nearly hit his wing, being pulled back down to where it came from by some sort of laser-like beam.

He aimed up his bow once more and fired at False before gliding back down to the ground. He didn't wait to see if the shot missed—he was out of arrows.

Landing, he put away his bow and pulled out a sword. He was still a bit alarmed by the trident—especially since he knew it belonged to Doc. Though, it didn't seem as if Doc was still targeting him—and it seemed no one else was.

Just as he was sure there was no one after him, a sword came striking down near him—almost hitting him right on point, but he barely dodged it.

Alarmed, Grian quickly rose his shield. As he did, however, his panic eased slightly when he saw that it was Wels.

And as they rose their head slightly, he noticed they didn't look to determined to hurt him. In fact, their expression seemed purely apathetic—and to be fair, they often were.

Wels gave a small sigh, glancing off to the side with annoyance. "I'm supposed to act like I'm going to kill you. Just roll with it," they deadpanned.

Exhaling sharply, the remainder of Grian's panic melted away, knowing he wasn't in danger. After that short pause, Wels lunged at him again, swinging their sword and striking his shield with fake menace.

Knocking them back with his shield, Grian quickly glanced around in attempts to spot someone else on the other team. However, he was interrupted by Wels striking at his shield again—and again.

On the fourth strike, Wels stopped to 'fight against' his shield and mumbled, "Hit me." 

The angel paused. "Hit you—? Wels, I don't—"

"Just do it," They growled. "Trust me—just fake me out and hit me, come on."

Hesitantly, Grian knocked them back with his shield once more, moving into a position to strike with his sword. He gave Wels a small glance, as if to ask if they were sure about it, and they nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Grian lunged, his sword striking the elf's. The two held their position before Wels lowered their head, signaling to him.

He pushed their sword down with ease—Wels not even fighting back—and quickly slashed at them, striking their cheek.

Grian grimaced as he watched Wels wipe away the blood trickling down their cheek. He almost felt scared when he saw the faux menace in their expression, but he was reassured that he did what he was meant to when Wels briefly flashed their eyes green. 

Almost unexpectedly, Wels charged at him again, their swords meeting once more.

"Do it again," they said quickly. "X is watching, he knows what I'm doing and I can't just stand around or else Doc's gonna get on my ass about it—you need to hit me again, and make it worse this time."

Grian pushed their sword away again, only this time, he didn't strike. "Wels, I really don't want to hurt you." 

Wels only stared at him for a moment before smiling, no longer feigning aggression. "Grian, it's okay. Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Grian was a bit surprised by their sudden change in tone, though it was very brief. Once again, they returned to their acting, preparing for another fake attack.

Quickly raising his sword again, Grian charged at nearly the same time as Wels.

A few seconds after their swords clashed, he moved his sword back slightly, using as much force as he could to strike Wels', forcing it back. For a moment, Grian saw a bit of genuine surprise when Wels' sword hit them in the face, knocking them back slightly.

Before he backed out on another hit, Wels quickly flashed their eyes green again as they placed a hand over the slight wound above their eye, trying to assure him that they were faking the emotion.

Suppressing the urge to hesitate once more, Grian shut his eyes tight as he swung his sword, striking Wels' eye and leaving a nasty slash over it, along with their hand—and he hit much harder than he would have liked to.

He flinched with a slight panic as he heard a loud, pained grimace—and his worry only worsened when he saw a pained expression on Wels' face.

"Wels, I—"

"It's fine, it's fine—" The elf interrupted, clutching their hand over the wound. "It's okay, Grian."

And while he wanted to believe that, he couldn't help but think it wasn't, seeing that Wels was in pain. Sure, it was to be expected, but he still didn't want to really hurt Wels. Besides, they were bleeding a _lot_.

Before he could move to help them, Xisuma came running up.

"Doc's gone inside to mess with the ghast," He told them both, quickly pulling out a roll of gauze and bandages

"Wels I'm sorry." Grian sighed. "I didn't mean to really hurt you."

Ignoring their pain, Wels smiled. "I told you, it's okay. You were _supposed_ to hurt me."

"Hold still, okay?" Xisuma said to Wels, pressing a gauze pad to the elf's eye, which caused them to grimace as it stung slightly. "I know, I know—know jeez, how many times are you gonna injure this eye?"

Wels gave a small chuckle. "Hey, it's not _my_ fault. Well, not _entirely."_

"I'm really sorry," Grian said, hugging himself.

Xisuma smiled at him reassuringly. "It's alright, Grian. It was all part of the plan."

The angel sighed. "I didn't mean to hurt them that badly, though."

"Grian, have I ever told you what one of the most important things I've learned is?" Wels asked, looking at him with a smile.

Grian shook his head.

"How to act—how to _pretend_. It's really important to know," they said. "I know how to pretend, and that's what I just did. Sometimes it takes real actions, but you can easily replicate emotions. You had to _actually_ hit me for it to work—but I could fake the emotions."

"I still didn't want to hurt you, though—"

"Grian."

"Sometimes we have to make sacrifices of some sort," Xisuma said. "That was one of them. In order for Wels' plan to work, you had to hurt them. You didn't _want_ to, but you _had_ to do it for the sake of the plan."

"But I don't even know what your plan _was!"_

"You'll see soon enough, my friend," Wels said, their smile widening.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn Wels already fucking up that eye again


	53. That Was Your Plan?

* * *

Grian watched as the admin finished patching up Wels' wounds.

To be fair, it was only a few, but still.

"There you go," Xisuma said, smiling as he patted the band-aid patch over the cut on Wels' cheek. "Probably should give it more time to heal instead of deciding it was fine to take the bandages off that soon this time around, especially since this isn't healed at all."

Gently, he pulled the elf into a hug, burying his face in their hair.

Wels smiled, resting their head against Xisuma's shoulder. "C'mere, Grian," they said, opening one side of their embrace.

The angel hesitated before walking into the hug. He sighed as Wels wrapped their arm around him, Xisuma moving an arm to do the same. 

He threw his arms around the two, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay, Grian," Wels whispered. "You're okay. Trust me."

They gently bumped their head against Grian's like a cat before pulling away. 

"Now then!" They clapped their hands. "Time to act like we're_ 'so overwhelmingly injured and unable to go on in this battle'_," they said sarcastically. 

"Wait, _that's_ your plan?" Grian tilted his head.

Xisuma chuckled. "Yep. Just act like you beat us so we can get this battle over with already."

"But...why?"

Wels shrugged. "I'm tired. Not like this battle mattered much anyway."

"Well, we oughta stop standing around over here," Xisuma said, motioning for Wels to leave as he ran off elsewhere. 

"I'll talk to you in a bit, alright, Grian?" Wels smiled, patting the angel's shoulders. 

Grian smiled as well. "Alright."

"Good." Wels pressed a small kiss to Grian's forehead. "Now, bye-bye," they said in a quick and silly voice, ruffling Grian's hair before running off.

Grian chuckled, waiting for them to get farther away before returning to the clearer part of the battlefield as well. 

It seemed as though the rest of Team STAR was on board with Wels' little plan, seeing as they were already running back towards their base with more injuries than they should have recieved. 

Before a retreat was properly announced by Doc or Xisuma, Cub blew his whistle. 

"Team STAR retreats!"

Faking annoyance, Wels groaned. "Oh, come _on_, all we did was regroup!"

Grian couldn't help but smile, considering he knew they were just acting. 

Cub shrugged. "You all returned to base, seems like a retreat to me. Besides, there's no shame in a 'loss' here. This was more of practice for you all."

"Besides, Wels, you've got two nasty eye injuries in a row it seems," Scar said. "Better if you take it easy."

Wels sighed. "Fine."

"I'll give everyone a moment to fully regroup and check on your teammates before bringing you back into the lineup," Cub announced to them all.

"You good, Grian?" Jevin asked, walking up and patting Grian's shoulder. "Saw you clashing with Wels earlier."

"Yeah, it's all good," Grian mumbled. 

"I think everyone's been patched up some time during the battle already for the most part," Stress said. She was in the middle of bandaging up Iskall's hand. 

Grian sighed. "Well, at least no one seemed to be hurt that badly." 

NPC Grian walked up to Grian and sat on the ground next to him. "Stress gave me candy because I was good while she put band aids on me!" He giggled.

Smiling, Grian reached down and gave his brother's hair a ruffle.

"Might as well start getting lined up again," Scar said, looking over at Grian.

Grian motioned for NPC to stand up before walking over to the middle of the field by the Convex's viewing platform, his teammates following soon after.

It took a few minutes for Team STAR to come out and get lined up, a few of their injuries newly bandaged for the time being. 

"Now then, you all did well in this battle, even if it was mostly a test—practice, even," Scar said to them all. 

"A bit of an overstatement to say _everyone_ did," Doc mumbled.

Scar glanced at him. "I beg your pardon?"

The creeper merely pointed to Wels.

"At least _I_ actually get up close to my opponents instead of hiding up in the ghast tower," Wels said snarkily.

"At least _I_ don't look like I'm already dead all the time," Doc replied.

Wels rolled their eyes. "Tough talk for someone who's death count by me alone is higher than his kill count. Besides, I look pretty good for a dead bitch."

False elbowed Ex as the half-demon suppressed a laugh.

Doc opened his mouth to speak before Stress cut him off.

"Come on, Doc, Wels is nonbinary and yet they're more of a man than you are!" 

Wels chuckled. "Can't disagree." 

"At least I _have_ a damn _gender,"_ Doc grumbled.

Wels snorted. "Damn, didn't know 'cuck' counted as a gender identity."

Cleo burst out laughing, going over to Team STAR's side to give Wels a high five as she did. 

"Oh, and Doc," Wels said. "At least I can actually aim, you missed Grian like five times."

Doc huffed, bringing his trident out. "What, you want me to test my aiming skills right now?"

Almost instantly, Wels moved in front of Grian, the playful smile leaving their face.

"Hit him and I'll throw you into the fucking void repeatedly until you get a permadeath you bastard," they hissed.

"Chill out, Wels," Scar said, as if giving a warning.

Wels glanced at Scar, but still remained where they were. "His move, not mine."

Scar glared at Doc, who sighed before putting away his trident. 

"Anyways," Cub began. "You _all_ did good. Now, you've got a few days to have a flag design prepped and ready. It'll be a simple design that your team comes up with and will be copied onto three banners. We'll go over all the rules and such later on. Everyone clear?"

"Yes sir," they all responded, though Wels didn't.

"The rest of the day is yours," Scar said, waving them all away. 

Grian moved to stand next to Wels, laying a comforting hand on their shoulder. They seemed to still be glaring at Doc as the rest of their team began walking back to the base. 

But after a moment, they sighed, relaxing a bit. 

Grian glanced up at them. "Wels—"

Before he could say anything else, Wels gave him a quick hair ruffle before walking off towards the base with the others. 

Jevin walked up to Grian, wrapping an arm around him. "I would try not to worry too much about them. They're really protective like that—especially over me and you and a couple others."

Grian still looked at Jevin with a concerned expression, but he felt slightly better when Jevin gave him a reassuring smile and a bit of a side-hug.

"C'mon, G. Might as well take the rest of the day to chill out and get some rest."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random note the lil Wels smooch can be taken as platonic or romantic up to you lol cause canonically Wels gives some of the others forehead smooches in this story


	54. Dorks.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I suppose potential warning for mentions of injuries like cuts and bruises idk if that,, needs to be a warning,,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As per usual this can be taken as platonic or romantic lol I just like writing Grian and Wels being softie dorks with each other in this story

* * *

Grian shot up in bed as he heard a loud crashing noise outside, along with an irritated yell.

A few of the others woke up as well.

"The hell was that?" Jevin mumbled.

Cleo groaned as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I don't know but I'm pretty damn sure that was Wels."

Grian sighed, climbing down from his bunk. "I'll go check out there—you guys just go back to sleep, I suppose."

With that, he slipped out the door, quickly making his way outside. Sure enough, Wels was out there. 

And they...seemed to have been throwing numerous skeletons across the field, a ridiculous amount of bones scattered across where they all landed.

"Wels are you good...?"

_"Peachy,"_ they spat, their gaze staying locked on the ground as they sat down with a huff.

As Grian approached them, Wels sighed, their expression softening a bit. "Sorry."

Grian sat down next to them and glanced at all of the bones. "Where did you even get that many skeletons? And what was that loud crash?"

"Found 'em," Wels mumbled. "And I threw a tree."

"You what now—" glancing around, Grian eventually spotted it. "Ah." 

  
It wasn't a huge tree, but a tree nonetheless. It also seemed to have collided with a separate tree, and Grian assumed that was, indeed, the source of the crashing sound.

Taking another look at Wels, he realized that they seemed a bit beaten up. Their face was scratched a bit and it looked like their nose was bleeding a bit. Not to mention the multiple cuts, bruises and scratches that were all over their arms.

  
"Wait, what happened to you?" He asked, his worry showing in his voice.

Wels glanced at him before staring at the ground again. "Doc."

Grian felt a bit of anxiety in his chest, along with anger, but he pushed it all down. "Why did he—"

"Because he's an _asshole,"_ Wels said angrily, their voice raising to a near yell, and Grian could hear underlying sadness and frustration in their tone. "As if I didn't get enough of this bullshit every _god damn day_ back then."

For a moment their eyes widened just a bit as they seemed to take a second to realize what they said. "I—" they paused, sighing heavily. "Pretend I didn't say that."

As much as Grian wanted to ask, he didn't. Shaking his head, the angel wrapped an arm around them, along with both his wings.

Wels leaned into the embrace, moving to rest their head on Grian's shoulder. After a few seconds, they buried their face in Grian's shoulder for a moment before moving to lay back against his chest. Keeping his wings around them, Grian wrapped his arms around them as well. 

Wels gave a small sigh. "It always calms me down when you do that..."

"That's why I do it," Grian said, smiling. 

The elf smiled as they gave him a gentle head bump. He felt the faint vibration of Wels' purring as they closed their eyes, any bits of stress fading.

At one point, they shifted to rest their head on Grian's shoulder, curling up against his chest with their nose buried in the crook of his neck. Their purring got a bit louder as Grian combed his fingers soothingly through their hair.

"I really don't deserve to have you as a friend, y'know," Wels mumbled. 

Grian frowned a bit. "That's _nonsense_, Wels."

"It's true."

"It isn't. You always try to look out for me, and you protect me. It wouldn't be fair for me _not_ to try and help you in return."

And although Wels gave a slight grumble, they didn't try to protest further. 

Grian smiled. "I win."

The elf gave a small_ 'bleh',_ only to have their nose booped right after. Jokingly pouting, they booped Grian's nose right back. 

"Dork." Wels smiled. 

Grian chuckled. "You're a bigger dork."

"Nu-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

Wels gave a small_ 'hmph'._ "This is cruel and unusual injustice, you have broken the law and therefore will be prosecuted shortly."

"Oh? And what law did I break?" Grian raised an eyebrow, playing along with their jokes.

"Right in the hermit handbook, rule #304, 'Thou shall not tease the elf.', and _you_, sir," they reached up and poked his cheek. "are teasing the elf." 

"I object, I am only stating the truth that you are a massive dork."

"This speech is slanderous and my lawyer will be contacted." Wels giggled a bit. "Alright, alright, I don't have a lawyer and no such handbook even exists, but I still say that you're a bigger dork."

Grian shook his head. "You are."

"Am not," Wels said in a slightly mocking tone.

"Agree to disagree?"

"Fair enough."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Head bumps and nose boops cause 🥺💕


	55. [Question sort of]

Okay so I had this thought.

"The Ties that Bind" is a way better title. However: it is very late in the story, basically in the middle. So I don't know if it would work well to change it at this point.

I've already done a play on words with the title for side books and all this time I've promoted it as Not From Around Here/NFAH so that would need to change too

I could of course come up with new titles for the side books but honestly I don't know so

Please please pleeeaaasseee let me know what you think, change it or don't change it, might work or won't work, etc.


	56. Are You Done Yet?

  


* * *

  


"Get up, you two."

  


  


Grian groaned slightly as he felt something tapping his head. 

  


  


"C'mon, rise and shine, boys—well, boy and enby," the familiar voice of False said.

  


  


Opening his eyes, he realized he fell asleep outside. The sun was barely beginning to come up, and Wels seemed to still be asleep. 

  


  


False chuckled. "As much as Wels hates cats, they sure are like one."

  


  


Grian was about to question what she meant, but then he also realized that Wels was still halfway curled up on his chest. Not quite fully, but mostly using him as a makeshift pillow. 

  


  


And they were still purring.

  


  


Carefully, he sat up, trying not to disturb them. They still seemed to be sleeping comfortably after they were moved to have their head laying on Grian's lap. 

  


  


"I really don't want to disturb them," Grian mumbled.

  


  


"Well, they gotta get up eventually." False smiled, moving to sit down next to the two. "But a few more minutes won't hurt. I might as well stay here till they wake up so I can take them off your hands."

  


* * *

  


The two days were up, and Grian and his team decided on a rather simple flag design.

  


  


Theirs was simply a cyan flag with a purple diamond shape in the middle and a black border. Nothing too fancy, but nothing to write home about either. It was simple enough, and it didn't really matter.

  


  


Though, when they presented theirs at the meeting—

  


  


"That's such a lame design," Doc said somewhat mockingly.

  


  


Impulse sighed and Xisuma pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. 

  


  


"Who cares if it's lame, design doesn't matter that much," Jevin replied. 

  


  


Doc snorted. "You could have at least been more creative."

  


  


Wels face palmed, sighing heavily. "I am seriously going to kick my boot _so far_ up your ass, Doc."

  


  


Ex nearly burst out laughing, but False quickly elbowed him before he could.

  


  


"Moving on," Scar said, pure annoyance in his tone. "Team STAR, your turn."

  


  


Ren held up the banner with their design on it. Their flag was green with a large yellow diamond shape in the middle, along with a few more smaller ones on the top and bottom of it, all of it outlined in a darker green.

  


  


"At least ours is actually pretty," Cleo said, Stress quietly agreeing after.

  


  


"Pretty lame, you mean," Doc taunted. 

  


  


"Xisuma, can I please kill him?" Wels grumbled. 

  


  


Xisuma sighed. "No."

  


  


Doc rolled his eyes. "Like you even could."

  


  


"Tell that to all the times I murdered your ass anyway," Wels replied.

  


  


"Doc, quit irritating your teammates," Cub said a bit sternly.

  


  


"Tell that to dickless dwarf over here," Doc said sarcastically, mildly gesturing to Wels.

  


  


"Bold of you to assume what's in my pants, it's actually a 15th century longsword—you even got my species wrong," Wels replied snarkily.

  


  


Ex bust out laughing despite his attempts not to. And although False would usually scold him, she admittedly was suppressing a laugh.

  


  


Xisuma sighed heavily, grabbing Wels and covering their mouth with his hand. "I apologize for all three of them, Scar."

  


  


Grian was a bit amused by Wels' muffled growling.

  


  


"Quit biting me," Xisuma told them. He heard a muffled_ 'no'_ in response. 

  


  


"Moving on, again," Scar said, shooting a glare at Wels. "Each team will have two more banners just like that. You all may hide your three flags wherever you want, and guard them by any means, so long as it's actually possible to capture them, even if it's difficult. Any fighting is allowed, and there will only be a final battle to end the war if both teams have each captured 2 flags. 

  


  


"I still ask that you refrain from killing each other, but it's absolutely allowed. As a reminder, you may ask for a Totum of Undying charm if you're afraid of permadeath. We will be happy to provide you with one. Oh, and please," Scar looked at Doc. "Refrain from fighting among teammates. Do I make myself clear?"

  


  


"Yes sir," they all replied. 

  


  


Doc rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir."

  


  


Scar glanced at Wels.

  


  


_"Yes sir,"_ they replied, their voice still being muffled by Xisuma's hand. 

  


  


"Good. There's no set deadline for when you should have your flags hidden, so have at it," Scar finished. "You're all dismissed."

  


  


* * *

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these stupid gender jokes props to the discord server I mod in for the 15th century longsword joke


	57. This Was Supposed to Be Peaceful

* * *

The angel glanced around. "Why are we having this meeting, exactly? And why in the middle of the night?"  
  


Scar rubbed the back of his neck. "It's in the middle of the night because I just thought of it a few minutes ago. As for why we're here, well—honestly, I just felt like we all should talk a bit."  
  


Grian tilted his head. "What do you mean?"  
  


"We're all still friends despite the fact that we're in a war," Xisuma spoke. "I think that's what it is."  
  


"Right," Scar said with a small nod. "So I want us all to just take a moment to chill out and talk. Cub isn't joining us, but that's alright."  
  


He motioned for everyone to sit down, which they all did—though, Doc merely rolled his eyes.  
  


"You have fun, I'm going inside."  
  


"No, you're not," False said, annoyance in her tone as she grabbed Doc by his lab coat and practically threw him on the ground. "You don't get to leave just cause you don't like us or something."  
  


The creeper huffed, though he didn't try to protest further when she glared at him.  
  


Scar sighed. "Anyways—I just want us all to chill out for a while, y'know? Forget the war for a moment and just relax."  
  


"What is there to talk about, though?" Jevin asked. "I mean—I can't really think of anything."  
  


Doc opened his mouth to speak before Wels interrupted him.  
  


"Choose your next words carefully, asshat," they growled quietly, not even taking their gaze off the ground in front of them.  
  


Doc scowled, staying quiet.  
  


"Somethin' tells me Wels doesn't wanna participate in this, Scar," Ex remarked.  
  


"Shut up," Wels mumbled.  
  


Immediately, Ex's mildly playful expression dropped. "Sorry."  
  


Sighing, the elf shook their head.  
  


"Well...maybe we could talk about our plans for after the war?" Tango suggested.   
  


"I wanna play with the bees again!" NPC Grian exclaimed.  
  


Stress clapped her hands. "Oh! I want to bake more after all this!"  
  


Grian smiled. "That sounds fun."  
  


"You could even help me, Grian!" Stress said cheerfully.  
  


"I'd love to," The angel replied with a small chuckle.  
  


Xisuma scratched his head a bit. "I'm honestly not sure I have any plans for after this."  
  


"I'll probably just work on my storage a bit more," Mumbo said, shrugging.  
  


"I could help you out a bit if you need," Iskall offered.  
  


"Ah—I'll keep that in mind." Mumbo smiled.  
  


"I'll probably work on my base more as well." Cleo chuckled. "Not much else to do."  
  


Impulse glanced at Tango. "Hang out with Zed after this?"  
  


Tango smiled. "Hell yeah!"  
  


For a moment, Grian's smile dropped as he saw Wels silently get up.  
  


"You okay, Wels?" He called to them, and they paused.   
  


Wels sighed. "I have no reason to participate. Believe it or not, I have nothing to contribute to this."  
  


Doc let out a small _'hmph'._ "What, so they can leave but I can't?"  
  


"Shut _up," _the elf half-yelled, seeming rather irritated.   
  


"Hey, hey—" Scar sighed. "Don't start again, this is supposed to just be all of us chilling out—"  
  


"Maybe I don't _want_ to."  
  


"Wels—"  
  


_"Listen. _Fuck this war. Fuck all of this, and fuck all of _you_. Wake me the hell up when it's done or don't wake me up at all," they spat, storming off.  
  


The others frowned, though Doc simply scowled.  
  


"Poor Wels," Ex mumbled. "They don't just get that upset for no reason—and they wouldn't say that if they weren't irritated by something."

"Pretty damn sure I know what that _something_is," False sneered, glaring at Doc.  
  


"Well if they get to leave, then I'm leaving," Doc said, standing up again.   
  


"Shut up and fucking leave then!" Grian yelled angrily.  
  


Mumbo turned to him, eyes widening. "Grian—"  
  


"Watch your tone," Doc growled before turning away.  
  


"Make me."  
  


Doc paused, glancing back at him. "You wanna repeat that?"  
  


Grian stood up, walking up to him and glaring at him. _"Make. Me."_  
  


Scar got up. "Don't—"  
  


But before he could finish, Doc already threw a punch at the angel. Grian quickly moved out of the way of it, swiftly kicking him in the stomach.  
  


"Stop fighting!" Scar yelled sternly.   
  


Grian huffed, turning to sit back down.  
  


Before he could move, a sharp pain shot through his chest.  
  


He heard muffled yells around him, darkness beginning to obscure his vision as he felt something cold dripping from his mouth. For a moment, his eyes caught sight of a blade.  
  


He felt another sharp pain before everything went dark.  
  
  


_[Grian was slain by Docm77.]_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna make a note!!
> 
> This isn't a problem here on Ao3 as far as I can remember but please remember that Wels uses they/them pronouns in this story! Please always keep that in mind when referring to them in a comment. In the updated info dump you can see all the characters' pronouns they use so you can use any of the pronouns for those characters that are listed for them :)
> 
> The info dump is in the lore book btw and has details for all characters that appear this time


	58. [Q&A Time!]

I know I know cliffhanger from previous chapter but hey 

Dramatic effect or something but also that dramatic effect is kinda not as good here lol

Anyways! I did this on Wattpad too but if anyone has any questions whatsoever feel free to ask as many as you want! You can direct the questions at me or any of the TTB characters and I will respond in character for those :) 

Also if my answer will have spoilers I'll ask if you're okay with spoilers then if you are I'll give you the answer 

But yeah! Ask away! I love answering questions so I encourage you to ask a million if you want lol


	59. Why Did You Do That?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential TW for implied suicide/dying on purpose (repeatedly)

* * *

He opened his eyes a bit, only to squeeze them shut again as the light shined in his eyes. 

"...hey."

As he heard the gentle whisper, he opened his eyes again, turning his head to the side. 

Sitting next to the bed was Wels. They had an empty expression on their face, yet underneath, there was anger. The thing that was most odd was the fact that they seemed to have blood dripping from their mouth and nose a bit, along with several unbandaged cuts and bruises on their face and arms.

  
"Wels, what happened to you? Where'd all these bruises and stuff come from?" Grian asked as he carefully sat up. His chest was still a bit sore from the injury, but it would go away soon-it always did after respawning. Besides, he could ignore the slight pain.

"Shit happens," the elf mumbled.

Grian frowned. "That's not an answer."

"How?"

"Wels."

"What? It counts."

Grian sighed, placing a hand gently on their bruised up cheek. They glanced off to the side to avoid his gaze, though they leaned into the touch.

"Come on-what happened?" Grian asked again in a gentle tone, running his thumb over a small scratch under their eye.

"I...um..." Wels lowered their head a slightly, fidgeting with their hands a bit. "Would you be mad if I said I was throwing myself off a cliff repeatedly?"

They felt Grian's hand shaking a bit as his eyes widened.   
"You _what?"_

Wels smiled bitterly. "Check your communicator."

Holding his gaze for a moment more, Grian reached for the device laying on a nightstand next to the bed. He felt anxiety stabbing at his chest as he read the chat.

_<Goodtimeswithscar> Wels? You alright?_

  
_<iJevin> So I'm assuming no one found them?_

  
_<Evil Xisuma> No, but we should just let them _ _chill out a bit and they'll probably feel better. If not, we can fix that later._

_<Xisumavoid> Yeah_

  
_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Iskall85> You might have spoke too soon there._

_<Evil Xisuma> Dammit_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Goodtimeswithscar> Again?_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Evil Xisuma> Okay now we definitely need to find them because they only respawn that damn quick if they did it on purpose_

_<Xisumavoid> Mumbo, you stay and watch over Grian, we'll try to find Wels_

_<Mumbo Jumbo> Alright_

_<iJevin> I'll hang back too_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Evil Xisuma> I swear if their communicator is on and they're not listening_

_<Xisumavoid> I can't track their coords, so clearly not. Otherwise we would have found them pretty quickly._

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Iskall85> What the hell are they even doing?_

_<Falsesymmetry> Take a wild guess._

_<Stressmonster101> I think I see them up there_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place.]_

_<Xisumavoid> _ _Stress, you found them?_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place._]

_<Xisumavoid> Stress?_

_<Iskall85> Hold on, I see her, just track my coords_

_<Xisumavoid> Alright_

_[Welsknight fell from a high place]_

Before he read the rest of it, Grian's communicator was removed from his hands. 

Wels sighed, putting the device back on the nightstand. "You get the gist of it."

"Wels, why did you do that?" Grian placed his hands on their shoulders, not even bothering to try and conceal his concern.

  
"Cause I'm a fucking moron, I thought we established this," Wels replied, still refusing to meet Grian's gaze. "I was too busy with my stupid sulking to protect you."

"That's no reason to go and throw yourself off a cliff over and over again!"

"Well maybe I don't _need _a reason, Grian," they said, volume raising a bit. "And maybe my reason doesn't have to be _good, _at least not to any of you because regardless of what my _reason _is, it won't be a good one to you.

"I _know _it's stupid, I _know _it's annoying, it annoys me too, dammit." 

"Wels, you're wrong-"

"How, then?!" They yelled, their gaze snapping to meet Grian's with angry eyes. Their voice cracked slightly as they were on the brink of tears. "Tell me-how the hell am I wrong, and what am I wrong _about?"_

"You're wrong about any of it being annoying! We all care about you, Wels-we want you to be okay! That's why everyone was looking for you, they were scared!" 

Wels opened their mouth to speak, but Grian moved to rest one of his hands on their cheek. The slight anger in their eyes melted into sadness as a few tears rolled down their cheeks. 

"You're being too hard on yourself," Grian whispered. 

Sighing, Wels averted their gaze and leaned into Grian's hand, placing their own over it.   
Grian ran his thumb over their cheek for a moment before motioning for them to sit on the bed. He moved back a bit to give them space to sit on it, which they did. 

He rested both his hands on Wels' cheeks, gently pressing their foreheads together as he pulled them into a slight hug with his wings. He felt Wels relaxing a bit, closing their eyes and resting their hands on his wrists. 

"m sorry, Grian," they mumbled.

"It's okay." Grian smiled reassuringly as he gently patted their cheeks. It earned him a slight smile from them.

"C'mon," he said quietly. "Let's get you patched up."

* * *


	60. Nap Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of those chapters that could he interpreted as shippy or just platonic cuddly cuddles and dorkiness

* * *

"Geez, how many times did you do that?" 

Wels glanced off to the side a bit sheepishly. "Um...I lost count."

Grian sighed, finishing up bandaging their arm. "I thought injuries went away after you respawn—and how did you even die that many times in a row so quickly?"

"I respawn quicker, blame the damn universe," Wels mumbled. "And yes, they do, but obviously mine don't always heal up if I respawn almost immediately like that. Plus I respawned in the same place I died a few times including the final time, and after that respawn a few of the others were there but I think I just went to sleep."

Grian tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"I kinda just said I was tired and laid there," Wels said with a slight smile. "And for some reason that got them to leave me there." They sighed. "Though I should probably apologize to Stress—I'm pretty sure she saw me throw myself off a few times, that's why she didn't respond to X."

The angel pushed that thought away with a slight grimace. Hell, if he saw Wels falling off a cliff and dying right in front of him, he would have froze too.

Just then, the door swung open, and the two turned their heads to see a mildly frantic Stress entering.

Wels smiled a bit. "Well, speak of the devil—"

"Oh, my poor Welsie!" Stress cried, cutting them off and throwing her arms around them. "You scared me so badly!"

The elf gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, I—I'm sorry about that. I wasn't in the best state of mind to say the least and that tends to make me more of an idiot than I already am."

Stress pouted a bit as she pulled back and looked at them. "Well, you're _my _idiot, and I don't wanna see my poor baby all busted up like this!"

"Alright, alright," Wels said, holding their hands up defensively. "I get it, Stressy."

With a slight _'__hmph', _Stress pressed a quick kiss to their forehead. "You better!"

Wels gave a small _'bleh__'._

"Now then—I gotta go. Behave, Welsie!" Stress said as she made her way out the door.

"How would I misbehave?" Wels tilted their head. "Now I wanna misbehave out of spite."

Grian chuckled. "No misbehaving or you lose head bump privileges."

Wels gave a fake gasp. "You would not dare."

"I would."

"Hmph. Fiiinneee."

Grian smiled. "Good. Now hold still, you've got a few more scratches and stuff I gotta bandage."

* * *

Wels hummed some sort of gentle tone as Grian finished placing band-aids on the scratches and bruises on their fingers and a few on their face. He found it amusing that they insisted he use "cute" band-aids, plus the way they swung their legs back and forth as they sat there.

"Alright, I think I got all of them," Grian said, closing up the box of band-aids.

Wels tilted their head. "Do I still keep head bump privileges?" 

"Yes, you do."

"Good," Wels said, giving Grian a gentle head bump. 

The angel giggled a bit, ruffling their hair. 

With a small hum, Wels moved to bury their face in his shoulder, throwing their arms around him. "M tired."

"You can take a nap if you want—I don't know when someone's gonna come to get you."

"You lay down too, mister, you still have an injury that requires rest."

"Is this just an excuse for you to lay down with me?"

"I plead the fifth."

"This isn't a court."

"We can make it one, I know the law."

Grian shook his head, smiling. "Alright, alright, you dork."

"You're a bigger dork," Wels mumbled. 

"Nooo, I still think _you _are."

"You are teasing the elf, sir, and that is a direct violation of rule #507. Don't make contact my lawyer."

"Oh? And who would that be?"

"Exy."

"I bet _he_ doesn't know the law. Also, I thought that 'rule' was rule #304"

"That's irrelevant."

"Objection—"

"Overruled."

Grian chuckled. "Alright, enough, it's nap time."

* * *


	61. Rule #304

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops forgot to remove one part for this version LOL

* * *

  
Groaning slightly, Grian dragged himself out of bed. 

He got his rest—might as well get up before he gets glued to the bed and just sleeps forever. They were still in the middle of a war.

Trudging out to the main area, he only saw a few of his teammates out there.

"Anyone have any ideas about hiding the flags?" Grian asked as he walked over.

"Sort of," Iskall replied. "I thought up a puzzle to hide one flag behind, but that's been my only idea so far."

Mumbo scratched his head. "I've not no ideas, but that's no surprise."

Grian patted Mumbo's shoulder. "It's alright. We'll think of something eventually."

"How about a parkour course?" Jevin suggested. "Could make them go through it to get the flag."

"Wouldn't that be too easy?" Grian tilted his head.

"We could put a trap at the end," Iskall said. "Maybe hide a pit of lava in the room where we put the flag so that when they go to grab it, they fall in. Still have to make it possible to get the flag, though."

"I suppose that could work, and maybe we could mess with redstone in the course," Mumbo agreed, and Grian nodded.

"So what about the third flag?" Grian asked. 

Jevin shrugged. "We'll just have to figure something out later, I guess."

Grian sighed. "That's fine—I doubt we'll have much of a problem with anything."

"Flags aside," Iskall said with a small wave of his hand. "You feeling alright, Grian?"

"Yeah, just a tiny bit sore but it's not much."

"That's good."

The four turned their heads as the front door opened, Gertrude standing in the doorway.

Mumbo tilted his head. "Um—"

The witch moved aside to let Scar in before she went back to her post out in the front. Scar seemed to have a few of the many cats scattered around the G-Team base following him, his own cat Jellie in his arms.

"You guys should have told me you had a million cats around here." Scar chuckled. "I think they like me."

Grian smiled. "It seems they do. Did you need something, Scar?"

"Oh! Yes, I did," he replied, seeming a bit distracted for a moment. "I just wanted to check and see how you guys were holding up." 

"We're all doing good—the others are still asleep, though," Iskall said with a smile. "Should be waking up soon."

"That's good. Make sure you stay alert in case the other team tries to come after your flags."

Grian nodded. "We will."

Jellie hopped down from Scar's arms for a moment, trotting over to Grian and bumping her head against his ankle before standing up against his leg.

Grian chuckled, leaning down to give her a scratch behind her ear. "Cutie." 

"Seems she likes you too," Scar said cheerfully. "She's actually the only cat Wels tolerates."

"They don't like cats?"

"No, that elf can't stand em," Cleo replied tiredly as she trudged out of the bedroom.

"I mean, I figured they were a dog person considering Remi, but I had no idea they disliked cats," Grian mumbled.

"Hates them." Cleo snorted. "Put a cat near them and they'll back away and if it hisses they'll hiss back. Funny considering they're like a cat—I know you've heard them purr before."

"And they give head bumps," Mumbo said with a chuckle. "Yet they can't stand cats. Something about being scratched up by one when they were a kid."

Scar nodded. "Jellie's nice, though, and I got Wels to warm up to her. Oh, and speaking of Wels, I think they're taking a walk if you wanna go talk to them, G."

Grian smiled. "I do, actually—thanks, Scar."

"No problem." Scar clapped. "Now then, I'll leave you guys alone—c'mon, Jellie."

As he walked out the door, Jellie gave them a small meow before following him. 

"That cat is the sweetest thing," Cleo said, smiling. 

"Seems like it." Grian chuckled. "I'm gonna go find Wels—be back in a few."

"Have fun, G," Jevin called to him as he made his way out the door.

* * *

It didn't take too long for him to find Wels, but they seemed to just be pacing around rather than taking a walk. 

"Hey, Wels—"

"Hi," they mumbled somewhat absentmindedly, before continuing their pacing. 

The angel chuckled a bit. "You good?"

"Mmh."

"I'm gonna assume that means possibly."

Wels sighed, pausing. "I really don't know, dude, I—" they groaned, walking over to Grian and laying their head down on his shoulder. "I don't know."

Grian ruffled their hair. "Anxious?"

"I guess," they mumbled. "Though I've got no clue what I'd even be anxious about. I'm just restless or something."

"Well, you're allowed to be."

"I know."

Grian gently took ahold of one of their hands, bringing it up to place a soft kiss on their knuckles. They gave another small sigh as they smiled, purring a bit. 

"You're a dork," they mumbled.

"You're a bigger dork." Grian smiled.

"Need I remind you of rule #304, sir?"

Grian gave a small_ 'bleh'._

Wels lifted their head, pressing their forehead against Grian's. "Go back to your team, dork."

  
"I will in a second," Grian replied with a slight chuckle. 

"Good." Wels gave his nose a quick kiss, followed by a small boop. "Now bye-bye."

"You're still a bigger dork," Grian said as he turned away and began walking back towards his team's base.

"Rule #304, angel!"

"It's not teasing if it's true!"

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sitting here posting and formatting this chapter while a student keeps arguing with a teacher 😐


	62. What?

* * *

Grian sighed. "It'll have to do." 

It wasn't the best trap ever—parkour and some lava—but it wasn't like anyone had any other ideas. Well, besides Iskall, but his was way different.

Mumbo rested a hand on Grian's back. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It might not work too well, but I'm sure we'll still be alright even if we lose that flag. We'll have two more, and there's no way they're getting the one Iskall's set up."

"I suppose," Grian mumbled.

Smiling, Mumbo gave his shoulder a reassuring pat. 

* * *

As Grian was walking back out into the main area, he heard NPC Grian giggling a bit excessively. Another thing he found odd was Ex standing there as well.

"Um—?"

"Dude," Ex said through a laugh. "You should have seen what your brother just did back at our base."

"That's mildly concerning," Grian replied.

"I—" NPC's speaking was interrupted by another laugh. "I brought Elfy one of the kitties and they got scared!"

Ex snorted. "I have _never_ heard Welsie screech like that before."

Grian shook his head with a small chuckle. "You two leave that elf alone, now."

"Alright, alright." Ex put his hands up defensively. "I oughta head off anyway."

"Bye-bye Exy!" NPC said with a smile.

Ex gave them both a quick hair ruffle before making his leave.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. 

Grian didn't have much to do, so he tried to help out a bit—making potions with Joe and Cleo, feeding the cats (and supplying them many pets), and checking inventory with Iskall.

It'd been a while since he could get decent conversation in with any of them—not like he really did much anyway. But still, it was nice for a change.

As he was sorting through the chests in the storage room, a thought crossed his mind. 

Grian glanced at Iskall. "Hey, I'm kind or curious—sorry if this is kind of personal to ask, you don't have to answer, but...what exactly happened to your eye...? I don't think I've ever heard."

Iskall smiled bitterly. "Ah, that was, um—that was Wels."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah." He chuckled. "They weren't doing very well and sort of lashed out. Didn't end well for me—not very fun having your eye practically clawed out by your friend, especially when it never recovers after respawning."

Grian grimaced. "I'm sorry."

Iskall shook his head. "It's alright. It wasn't their fault, in all honesty. It's not like they had much control over it. That's one thing we always have to be cautious of with them, the way their mind works. Not very stable all the time, and sometimes it can end much worse than anyone would have predicted." He tapped the metal plate over his eye. "This is just an example of that."

He sighed. "That poor elf. I remember how much they were crying and apologizing to me afterwards. Doc tries to call them manipulative for those kinds of things, but they genuinely lose control and we all know that. If you were someone who had to go through as much hell as they did, you'd snap easily too, and we don't even know why they had to go through everything they did."

The angel frowned. "I still wonder so much why all of that happened to them, and I don't even know all of the details. I've heard of some things, but I don't know a whole lot. Still, what I've heard is awful." 

"It really is. I don't know what in the world would cause them to be tormented so heavily. It could be something they won't tell us—Doc tries to claim they did something to the people back in their home that made them receive such treatment, but we all know that's bullshit—but the fact is we don't know and probably wont, and it isn't our place to try and ask."

Grian nodded. "It must have been really bad—but that alone is an understatement."

"Maybe we'll find out eventually," Iskall shrugged. "but they have every right to tell us only if and when they want."

"Yeah."

"Well!" Iskall clapped his hands. "This has turned a bit sour for a moment. Wanna go take a break?"

Grian smiled. "Sure."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's taken so long for an update
> 
> Y'all probably don't care but I got Baker acted which was an utterly hellish experience so that didn't help the fact that I was already doing poorly so I had that going on for a week and I've been in a rough place financially so that's been stressing me out as well
> 
> That being said if any of you have Tumblr or Twitter I've posted about having commissions open so if you do I'd really appreciate the simple act of reblogging or retweeting those, my Tumblr is @ihavenoconsistentname and my Twitter is @0thebeesknees0
> 
> Just sharing those is heavily appreciated if you're able to


	63. Iskall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These two (this and the next) were supposed to go up yesterday!! I'm sorry 😭
> 
> And since I was gonna wait but forgot to post them here I'll post the chapter I had planned for today as well instead of waiting for the sake of showing a time skip

* * *

"You'll really like it here." 

Grian shifted his gaze to Iskall at the comment. 

Iskall smiled widely. "Despite the war, despite Doc, despite any bad things that happen—you'll really like it here. If not, then we'll make sure you do."

The angel sighed, looking out over the battlefield again as he leaned on the railing. "I can't go back home," he mumbled. "I have no choice."

He felt a gentle hand rubbing small circles between his wings. "If you became unable to like it here—"

"No, I—" Grian shook his head. "I can't go back home."

"You know Xisuma would be able to help you."

"Iskall, you don't understand—"

"Actually," Iskall interrupted. "I do." 

Grian titled his head.

Iskall smiled. "How do you think Xisuma found you in the first place?"

"I...he—"

"Made a portal. And he's one of the select few that actually knows how to get there and do it right."

As Iskall spoke, Grian felt anxiety gripping his chest. It spiked for a moment when he felt fingertips running gently over his left wing.

"You don't have to be afraid," Iskall said softly. "I know you're scared. But no one here will let anything like that happen to you—hell, just look at Wels."

Grian smiled bitterly. "They'd snap someone in half with their gaze alone if someone like Doc did so much as threaten me."

Iskall chuckled. "Exactly. They aren't letting anything happen to you. Besides, just look at Tango—I'm sure you know his species by now?"

"He's a demon," Grian replied with a nod.

"And he's safe here, isn't he?"

Grian's eyes widened a bit.

It was true—he never even thought about that. Tango was a demon, but no one here hunted him or tried to harm him because of it. 

Iskall gave Grian's shoulder a pat. "When Xizara was pestered by a demon, people only feared and even hated him because of what that demon made him do. But even then they acknowledged it wasn't his fault. And that demon may have been bad, but we all know Tango is different. No one tries to hurt, kill, or capture either of those two over it

"The point is, you're safe here. Even if it's scary. You're safe here, and there's plenty of us who will make sure you stay safe. If you ever need anyone to come to for anything, you can come to any of us. Mumbo loves you a lot—you know you can go to him for anything."

Grian smiled. "Thank you, Iskall."

Iskall gave his hair a gentle ruffle. "Any time. It's getting pretty late, so I'm gonna go back inside and go to bed—don't stay out here too long, alright?"

The angel nodded. "Night, Iskall."

"Goodnight, Grian."

With that, Iskall turned and left. 

Sighing heavily, Grian turned back to lean on the railing and look out over the battlefield. 

* * *


	64. Weight

* * *

Grian sighed, running a hand through his hair before climbing up onto the edge, standing in front of the railing. 

He glided off the edge, landing down on the battlefield. He walked towards the center of the field, gazing up at the stars and the moon. The atmosphere felt quite refreshing, and he enjoyed it.

The calmness of the night was interrupted, however, when he heard the sound of a trident being flung through the air, landing in the dirt as it missed it's intended target. 

Near the front of the Team STAR base, Wels and Doc were standing about 6 feet apart from each other, seemingly arguing with each other.

"You missed, _asshat,"_ Wels yelled angrily, grabbing the trident and launching it straight at Doc's face, hitting him just above his non-robot eye before falling to his side.

He grimaced, placing his hand over the wound, which had blood flowing from it rapidly. He glared at the elf, who only wore a more piercing gaze full of anger.

"Listen, you dumbass, you're making a mistake—"

Wels barked a laughed. "Oh, _I'm_ making a mistake, am I?" They mocked. "You're fucking hilarious. Whoever put _you_ in this world made a mistake, _pal."_

Grian ducked silently behind a tree, peering out at the two. 

"How about _you_ listen?" They spat, walking up to Doc. "I'm fed up with you. I'm not dealing with your bullshit anymore. Screw your team, screw _you,_ and screw your chances of winning. I'm off this team."

"You are not."

_"You_ don't get to decide that. Scar does. And I know that he'll approve of me leaving. So _yes—"_ They shoved Doc, raising their voice again. "I _am."_

Stepping back, Wels kicked the other's trident at him. "Don't act like you're not gonna be fucking _ecstatic _to be rid of me," they spat before walking back inside the smaller front of the base, slamming the door. 

Grian watched as Doc looked at the blood covering his hand before picking up his trident. Sighing heavily, he walked to the door leading to the lower parts of the team's fort, disappearing from sight.

Grian waited until he saw Wels walk back outside, only a few minutes later. 

They sighed heavily, running a hand through their hair. Xisuma appeared behind them, placing a hand on their shoulder. 

"Are you alright, Wels?" He asked, moving to put an arm around them.

Wels exhaled shakily, shaking their had as tears began to fall from their eyes. "I'm so sick of it, X," they cried quietly. "I'm sorry, I just can't deal with him anymore."

"It's okay. You do what you have to," Xisuma soothed, pulling the elf in for a hug and rubbing their back comfortingly. "It's okay."

Wrapping their arms tightly around him, Wels sobbed into Xisuma's shoulder. The admin leaned his head against Wels' gently whispering soothingly to them.

Grian's heart sank seekng Wels so upset. It was never much of a surprise for them to fight with Doc, but it didn't change the fact that he hated seeing Wels so upset. They had the weight of a thousand worlds on their shoulders, and Doc wasn't helping.

Luckily, it only took a few minutes for Xisuma to help them calm down. They sighed heavily as he released them from the hug. 

"I wish you the best of luck, okay, Wels?" He whispered, softly meeting the other's gaze. 

Wels nodded, wiping their eyes. Xisuma patted their shoulders, pulling them into another quick but tight hug. 

Releasing them, Xisuma smiled reassuringly before heading back inside, giving them one last shoulder pat.

As the door behind them closed, Wels closed their eyes and took a deep breath. They covered their face with their hands for a moment before looking up at the sky, gripping their hair and blinking away the rest of their tears. 

Grian hesitated before slowly moving out from behind the tree, walking up to them. 

"Hey," he called softly. "is everything okay, Wels?" 

Wels looked at him before sighing and dropping their hands. "I don't know, Grian." They shook their head. "I don't know."

The angel opened his arms, offering a hug. Wels hesitated before walking into Grian's arms, pressing their forehead against his shoulder for a moment before leaning his head against the other's.

"You'll be okay, Wels. I'm sure of it." Grian said reassuringly. 

Wels closed their eyes, nodding. "I know..." They whispered, sighing. "I know."

Grian smiled, wrapping his wings around them comfortingly. He immediately felt some of Wels' stress melt away as he did. 

The elf smiled as well, feeling much better. "Thank you." They mumbled. 

Grian nodded, pulling his wings back into place as he released Wels. "Are you gonna be okay for the rest of the night?" 

"Yeah, I think I will be." They sighed, running a hand through their hair. "Thanks." 

"Of course."

* * *


	65. [Real quick!]

I'm just curious to see :)

If you have any theories or have connected the dots between anything in this story, I wanna hear it! I like hearing people's thoughts and theories :)

If you don't have any, no worries. 


	66. Eye for an Eye, Knight for a Spoon.

* * *

"Everyone, your attention for a moment, please?"

All eyes turned to the Convex as Cub addressed the group. Wels was with them like a child on a leash. 

Figuratively speaking, of course. Scar didn't _actually _have them on a leash. Simply making sure they stood next to him.

"Thank you. As you are both aware, we've experienced some..._issues_ among teammates—"

Wels snorted. "Putting it a little lightly there, huh, Cub?"

Scar sighed. "Wels, I asked you to make this easy."

"Yes you did, very politely, and I'm merely giving a snarky comment. I thought we were used to this by now."  
  


"Enough," Cub interrupted. 

"Yeah, _Welsie_, enough," Doc said mockingly.  
  


Which was very quickly followed by a yelp as a rock came flying at his head.  
  


"I thought I told you not to call me that, asswipe," Wels growled, already holding another to throw.

"Oh, fuck off."  
  


"Bite me."  
  
  


_"Enough." _Xisuma said sternly. "Let Cub speak and quit bickering."  
  


Wels sighed. "Fine."

And, even still, they threw the second rock at Doc, which was caught by Xisuma, then thrown at Doc from a much shorter distance.

  
  
  


"Are you done now?" Cub asked.

_"I_ am," Wels replied.

Doc merely grumbled. 

"Now then. As demonstrated clearly just now," Cub glared at Wels, who gave him a small _'bleh'_. "Team STAR has had some conflicts with getting along—specifically Wels and Doc. In order to resolve this, the team agreed as a whole, after Wels...'_suggested'_ the idea, that it would be better for Wels to join the G-team."  
  


Grian glanced at Wels, who merely shrugged.   
  


"However, Team STAR thought of a sort of deal. In exchange for Wels on your side, there are a few conditions: Wels is prohibited from being the one to capture the final flag from Team STAR's base during the final battle, assuming it occurs. They will also be restricted for the first half of the battle—again, if it occurs in the first place. As for Team STAR, they will gain another member off your team—that member decidedly being Mumbo."  
  


"Wait, you want _Mumbo?"_ Grian interjected.  
  


"Sort of a win-lose there, don't you think?" Wels snorted, looking at Doc. "Not only is it benefitting no one but Doc by having me off the team, but you're also replacing me with someone who will give _no one_ any benefit. No offense, Mumbo."  
  
  
  


Mumbo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "None taken—admittedly, I'm a bit useless in this war."  
  
  
  
  


Scar groaned. "Listen, we're not doing anymore negotiation—it's been troublesome enough." He turned to Grian. "Do you accept these terms?"  
  
  
  
  


Grian glanced at his other teammates. "Well?"  
  
  
  


"I'm all for having Wels on this team," Jevin said. "And it makes sense if they're not allowed to steal the other team's final flag."  
  
  
  
  


Iskall nodded. "Mumbo is great and all, but we might as well, right?"   
  
  
  
  


"Mumbo, you alright with it?"  
  
  
  
  


The redstoner nodded. "Heck, it's realistically just straight upgrade for you guys. I might as well."  
  
  
  
  


"It's settled then." Cub clapped his hands. "Wels is now a member of the G-Team, and Mumbo is now a member of Team STAR. Hopefully that can prevent further conflicts—to some extent, at least."  
  
  
  
  


"Yeah, now I can kick Doc's ass all I want without it breaking the rules," Wels remarked as they walked over to Grian's side.   
  
  
  
  


"I'd like to see you try," Doc growled.  
  
  
  


Wels smiled. "Is that an invitation or a threat?"  
  
  
  


"Save it for the next battle, you two," Scar said.  
  
  
  


"Aw, c'mon, just let me add one more thing."  
  
  
  


"No."  
  
  
  
  


Xisuma sighed. "You might as well let them, Scar."  
  
  
  


Scar glanced at Xisuma before shaking his head. "You know what—fine. One more thing, Wels, and that's it."  
  
  
  


"Lovely." The elf glared at Doc for a moment. They made a small motion for the others to move away from him, which they did.   
  
  
  


Doc huffed. "What, are you just gonna stare at me menacingly?"  
  
  
  
  


"No, just give it a second."  
  
  
  


"Give what a s—"  
  
  
  


His question was answered before he could even finish it.   
  
  
  


Out of nowhere, sharp, stake-like vines shot up from the ground from multiple angles, piercing right through Doc's body. And, after a moment, they retracted, and his body fell to the ground.  
  
  
  


Everyone's eyes widened as they watched a death message appear right in front of them.   
  
  


_[Doc was killed by Welsknight using magic.]_   
  
  


_"That's _what," Wels stated simply before turning and walking towards G-team's base.  
  
  
  


The others were left staring at Doc as he lay dead on the ground. Surprising? No. Unexpected? Yes.  
  
  
  


And in the spot where Wels stood, a single mark in the dirt was left where they dug their boot into the ground. 

* * *


	67. Zoning Out

* * *

As Team STAR was taking care of bringing Doc back to the base, the meeting being well over, Grian made his way over to Mumbo before he went with Xisuma and the others. 

"You sure you're okay with it?" He asked, resting a hand on Mumbo's shoulder. 

The redstoner sighed. "Well, think of it this way—maybe I can be an idiot enough to mess up Team STAR and give you guys an advantage." 

Grian smiled. "It'll be fine." 

"We'll see." 

Grian pulled Mumbo into hug. "Be careful, alright?" 

"You oughta be careful as well," Mumbo replied. "But I will." 

Grian smiled, wrapping his wings around Mumbo for a moment before releasing him and catching up with the others.

* * *

  
Throughout the meeting, Grian couldn't help but glance at Wels over and over again.

They were the only one who hadn't said a single word the entire time, seeming more despondent than ever. They refused to even look up. 

"—Grian, what do you think?" 

Snapping out of his thoughts, Grian realized he didn't hear anything that anyone previously said. 

"I, er—" Grian rubbed the back of his neck. "About what?" 

"Trying to snatch a flag from Team STAR!" Cleo replied. "You think we should go for it?"

He grimaced. "I don't know—isn't it sort of... early?" 

"The early mouse gets the worm," Joe said. 

_"Bird_, you idiot, bird!" Cleo exclaimed, lightly smacking Joe in the back of the head." 

Jevin chuckled before turning to Wels. "What do you think, Wels? Too early?" 

But they didn't even acknowledge him. 

The half-angel pulled a face, snapping his fingers in front of Wels. "Wels? Hello?" 

Suddenly, Wels jumped slightly, as if they were just pulled out of a trance. 

"Uh—what? Sorry—I—" Wels glanced between a few of the others before looking at Jevin. "Huh?" 

"You good, dude?" Jevin asked, placing a hand on their shoulder.

  
"I'm—" Wels sighed, running a hand through their hair. "Yeah. Sorry. What were you asking?" 

"Do you think it's too early to go after one of Team STAR's flags?" Stress replied. 

"Oh. Um...well, I'm not really allowed to comment on the location of them so...I don't know." 

"We should wait a little longer, I think," Iskall suggested. 

Tango nodded. "Yeah. We could prep our defenses a bit more." 

"I guess that settles it," Grian said. "Is that all we need to discuss?" 

"I think so," Jevin replied. 

"Yeah. I think that's all," Cleo agreed. 

The others nodded in agreement, with the exception of Wels, who seemed mildly dazed. 

"Alright. Let's get back to it, then." 

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the day wasn't the most eventful. More work on minor defenses, rearagging some things, taking care of the cats—nothing much. 

It almost became a bit of a concern that Wels seemed heavily disconnected. It took them a few tries to register when someone spoke to them, and overall it almost seemed like they were trying to stay away from everyone. Grian noticed that they made attempts to avoid the others. 

Or they were trying to avoid _him. _

But that was just paranoia. Surely not—they just needed space. Not that he knew why, but that much he figured.

But no one really knew why anyway. Wels tended to do these sorts of things—being disconnected, reserved, and so on, and often for an unknown reason.

It would probably stop in a bit.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hard to find a way to replace Wels' internal conflict happening in the story's Wattpad version lol


	68. Worries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD DID I NEVER POST THIS??? I NEVER POSTED THIS. FUCK GOD DAMMIT AAAAAA
> 
> ANYWAYS IM SORRY I NEVER POSTED THIS AND IM SORRY ITS BEEN TAKING SO LONG IVE BEEN CAUGHT UP IN OTHER STUFF SUKGJSJG
> 
> jesus christ omfg I cannot believe I forgot

* * *

Grian only got more worried about Wels as days passed. 

They hadn't gotten less despondent, and a few days after the teammate swap, he heard they talked to Mumbo around midnight. 

And after that, they only seemed worse. 

They didn't even look up when everyone sat down for breakfast in the morning. They didn't touch any food at all—Stress tried to get them to eat, but they just shook their head. Eventually she gave up, but got them to eat at least a little bit later in the day. There were moments when they would just begin to cry for seemingly no reason. It seemed as if they were able to focus on doing whatever work they were helping with, but at the same time they were heavily detached. 

Hell, they hadn't said a single word near him in quite a while, so much so that it was almost as if Grian forgot what their voice sounded like.

That wasn't good. 

But that was a worry that needed to be set aside for now. The next meeting the team had was nothing short of bad news.

With a heavy sigh, Iskall stood up. "Last night one of our flags was nabbed." 

A wave of anxiety washed over everyone, mixed with feelings of disappointment.

"Luckily," he added. "It wasn't from the puzzle that I created. They aren't getting through that one." 

Grian sighed. "I knew that parkour and everything was hopeless." 

NPC Grian emitted a whining noise, leaning his head against Grian's arm. 

Jevin patted the other angel's shoulder. "We'll be fine, G." 

Once again a familiar worry poked at Grian as he glanced over at Wels. They were absentmindedly fidgeting with some sort of stretchy bracelet, the string filled with glittery purple beads. It seemed to occupy them quite well, but they also seemed a bit zoned out again. 

As if that was any surprise. 

"Well...we'll be just fine then, right?" Tango smiled almost reassuringly. "No one's gonna get our other flag! All we have to do is hide the third one just as well and get theirs!" 

"I'm sure we'll have to face an end battle," Joe replied. "But I think we'll be okay." 

"Yeah," Wels mumbled, surprisingly. They glanced at Iskall. "No one's getting through Izzy's puzzle. We'll be fine." 

"And if we have to have a battle for the final flag?" NPC asked a bit anxiously. 

"Don't be so quick to kiss your asses goodbye," they replied. They motioned for NPC to come stand near them, and as he did, they pulled him into a bit of a side hug. 

"We'll be just fine!" Cleo said. "We outnumber them anyway." 

"Yeah!" Stress smiled. "I'm sure we'll be alright." 

And despite his lingering worry, Grian smiled as well. 

They would be just fine. Surely. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah and I update the Wattpad info dump but not the one here because I mostly use Wattpad over AO3 lol but anyways you'll see Wels calls Iskall "Izzy" and that's a nickname I recently added to the info dump on Wattpad


	69. Outnumbered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry to do this to y'all but you guys here are missing out on an entire segment that's in the Wattpad version 😭

* * *

Scar glanced at Mumbo. "So uh—" he cleared his throat, looking at Xisuma. "What happened to Mumbo being on your team?" 

The meeting was a bit abrupt, though it's not like Grian had any plans. Nor did his team. He was actually a bit refreshed by it—the whole "none of us have any clue what we're going to do now" thing was proving to be stressful. 

And that was just an understatement.

Xisuma chuckled a bit nervously. "Ah, we, um—all decided that it would be better for the G Team to keep him." 

"It's true," Mumbo said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I agreed with them." 

Joe grinned. "So, what, you want Wels back now?" 

"Absolutely not," Doc said quickly. "We don't need an extra trash can." 

"Yeah, Joe, they've already got a trash can, it just responded to you," Wels said sarcastically. 

"You're the only _'it'_ here, dumbass," Doc grumbled. 

Wels smiled. "Yeah well you put the _'it'_ in _'dipshit'._" 

"Welsie—as much as I love your snarky responses—don't start, you two," Ex interrupted. 

Wels gave a joking pout. "Alright, alright." 

Cleo snorted. "Doc's jealous that Wels is at least a fabulous trash can." 

Doc rolled his eyes as False and Stress simultaneously let out a quiet_ 'oooo'. _

"Moving on," Scar said, suppressing a laugh. "I guess it wouldn't really make much of a difference. Unless Mumbo knows where the flags are hidden?" 

"No, they wouldn't reveal it to me," Mumbo responded. "Which is fair enough." 

"Didn't want him snitching," Ex said. "I know he's a spoon but he can be really clever sometimes." 

"Well," Cub said with a small sigh. "If you're willing to put yourself at an even bigger disadvantage by being outnumbered by yet another member then we'll allow it." 

"High risk, high reward, Cub, my dude," Ren replied.

"Good luck with that, puppy," Iskall remarked, earning a small pout from the werewolf. 

"Better than calling you a mutt." Wels chuckled. 

"Well," Cub said with a small wave of his hand. "I guess Mumbo is back on the G Team, then." 

"Sweet!" Tango exclaimed. 

Impulse pouted jokingly. "What, you're happy for us to lose?" 

"No, I'm not!"

Impulse smiled. "Alright, I won't tell Zed on you, then." 

"I think it's about time we call this meeting over," Scar interrupted. "So with that, you're all dismissed, but you can stick around out here for a while longer if you'd like." 

After he concluded, Cub and Scar got up and made their leave, Jellie following shortly after. 

Xisuma smiled. "We may be vastly outnumbered, but I wish you all luck nonetheless. May the best team win?" 

Grian nodded. "May the best team win."

* * *


	70. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

* * *

He finally figured out what was up with Wels when he saw them hugging their daughter as tight as they could. 

That was it—they were worried about Xavi. It was just a cruel reminder of what could be at stake with the war. 

Sure, Wels always came back, but every death took a toll on Xavi. It made her worry more and more, and regardless of the fact that they couldn't die permanently, Wels worried more and more that they wouldn't be able to go back home to her. 

She was all they really had left, and Wels was the only family she had. She couldn't afford to lose them, and they couldn't afford to leave her. 

So that's what it was. They were caught up in that worry. Afraid she would lose them, and afraid that they'd lose her. 

No one else really understood that fear, that worry—Wels was the only one who had a child they needed to go back home to at the end of the war. 

But everyone in the war knew what was at stake. They knew what they were putting on the line, and what everyone else was. Surely it would be just fine—no one would dare take a parent away from their child. 

Except for Doc. He didn't give a shit about their life. 

That was the only problem. 

But if anything, no one would let him. Xisuma wouldn't, False wouldn't, Jevin wouldn't, _Grian_ wouldn't— 

No one would. It was bound to be just fine. 

Even still—it didn't erase that fear. 

War always affects those who just wanted to live their lives in peace.

* * *


	71. Trick

* * *

"Grian, Grian!" 

Whipping his head around, Grian saw Stress running towards the base with something in her hand—one of Team STAR's flags. 

Behind her, though, Ex and Ren were hot on her trail. 

"Come on, Stress!" Grian called to her, pulling out a bow and aiming up at Ren. The werewolf yelped as the arrow hit his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks for a moment. 

"Take that, ya filthy mutt!" Stress yelled as she passed Grian, making a beeline for the base's entrance. 

Just as Ex was approaching, a figure darted towards him and swiftly kicked him back. When he regained his balance, he reached for his daggers, only to find that they were missing. 

"Oh, sorry, were you looking for these?" Wels snickered, holding up the blades. 

Ex huffed. "Hey—!" 

As he was about to try and grab the daggers back, he paused. "Wait, are you wearing a skirt—?" 

"Yep." Wels spun one of the daggers in the air and caught it with their teeth, then elbowed him in the face before kicking him onto the ground. They brought their boot down on his chest and kneeled over him. 

Chuckling, they took the dagger back into their hand and spun it around. "Ya like my little trick?" 

Ex gave them a pouty yet defeated look. "That was _not_ fair." 

"All's fair in love and war," Wels replied cheekily, pressing a kiss to Ex's forehead and standing back up. 

Grian chuckled as they passed him, holding up his hand. "Nice one." 

Smiling, Wels gave him a high five. "I have my ways." 

Ren sighed as he helped Ex up. "Alright, alright—fair enough, my dudes." 

"You're lucky I don't beat people up the way Wels does," Grian said to Ren. "You got off easy." 

"Can't let your enemies get off easy forever, now," Ex responded, holding out his fist. "Toughen up more, G-man. You're getting there." 

Smiling, the angel bumped his fist against Ex's. "Right." 

"Well," Ex said with a sigh. "You have fun with that flag. And may the best team win." 

Grian nodded. "May the best team win."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this isn't connected too much lol but they'll mention what plan Stress had in the next chapter
> 
> Also Wels said fuck gender roles I'm wearing a skirt
> 
> Also-also, there's a plot outline I put up in the Wattpad version but obviously i can't put it here?? Unless y'all wanna see it and are okay with the mild spoilers


	72. This Isn't Over Just Yet

* * *

Rounds of high fives and laughter went around the group as Stress hung the flag on one of the walls in the meeting room. It was finally progress, which was something they hadn't seen in what felt like ages. 

"That was a real clutch idea," Jevin said, throwing an arm around Cleo's shoulders. "Distracting those guys while Stress snuck in and nabbed the flag and keeping most of them off her tail there." 

"I almost thought it wouldn't work," Stress admitted. "Good thing Welsie over here got Ex before he got me." 

Iskall raised an eyebrow at the elf. "Was the skirt really part of your plan?" 

Wels smiled. "Nah. Just felt like wearing it." They gave a little twirl. "What, jealous that I pull it off better than you, Izzy?" 

"Don't test me." Iskall grinned. 

"You two can play dress-up after the war," Joe said with a chuckle. 

Mumbo glanced at Wels and Iskall. "Can I join you in playing dress-up?" 

"Hell yeah," Wels replied. 

"I wanna play too!" NPC Grian said with a smile. 

"Alright, alright—" Grian chuckled, giving a small wave. "Dress-up later. For now, we're in the middle of a war." 

"So what's next, then?" Tango asked. "We don't have many plans, do we?" 

The angel grimaced. "Yeah, we really don't. But hey—at least this was progress!" 

"And that's what counts!" Cleo exclaimed, ruffling Grian's hair. 

Wels chuckled. "Have your celebrations for now, just don't get too ahead of yourselves." 

"What, you think we won't win?" Jevin asked with mild sarcasm. "We got this, dude!" 

"Well, _dude_, I never said we won't, but there's always a chance—" 

"Our chances are just fine!" Cleo interrupted, waving her hand. 

"We outnumber them quite a bit, Wels," Mumbo said, patting the elf's shoulder. "The odds would be in our favor." 

Wels sighed. "Just don't forget that they've got some of the most strong and clever people on their team." 

"Yeah, well we've got you!" Stress protested.

They smiled bitterly. "Don't overestimate me, Stress." 

"Well _you_ shouldn't _under_estimate yourself," Grian responded. "You're up there in the strongest group, y'know." 

"Even if I am, there's always a chance that things can go wrong. All I'm saying is we need to be prepared for that to happen." 

"We will be!" 

"Alright, alright!" Wels said defeatedly as they turned to leave. 

"Have your celebrations for now. This war isn't over just yet."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dw they absolutely will play dress-up after the civil war arc


	73. Flag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. this is set forward a decent amount of days

* * *

Grian shot up in bed as he heard the crashing sound of glass breaking, as well as a struggled yell. 

The others woke up as well, but before anyone could question anything, Grian jumped out of bed, grabbed a sword on the way out, and ran for the bubble elevators. 

The noise was definitely up in one of the top levels—something told him it was the meeting room. 

Why? Because that's where their last flag was, waiting to be hidden—or captured. 

He stumbled out of the elevator immediately as he arrived, and his fears were confirmed when he saw the state of the room. 

But he didn't have time to look over it. He saw Wels being kicked back onto the table, hitting it for a brief moment before they hit the floor, and they were covered in injuries. 

Sword staying prepared in his hand, Grian rushed over and kneeled down next to them, helping them onto their knees. 

"Sorry, Wels!" the voice of Ex called back. Looking up, Grian saw the half-demon making a break for the shattered window in the front of the room. 

Standing there with the flag in his hand was Doc, and he smiled victoriously before following Ex. 

"Hey!" Jevin yelled as he reached the room, drawing his sword and running after Doc. A few of the others followed shortly, Iskall, Joe, and Tango following Jevin with their weapons prepared. 

Sighing heavily, Grian turned his attention back to Wels. They were still catching their breath, but holy hell were they beat up. Cuts and bruises all over their arms and everything—even their face was scratched up badly, blood dripping down from their forehead. 

Grian brought their arm around his shoulders and helped them up. They couldn't even stand on their own at all. 

"Oh, goodness, my poor Welsie!" Stress cried, rushing over and gently cupping their face. She ran her thumb over their cheeks as tears began to form in their eyes, pressing her forehead against theirs. "You'll be okay, sweetie, it's okay." 

"Those _bastards!"_ Cleo yelled angrily, kicking an overturned chair. She drew her sword and ran to the window, leaping out to follow the other four. There was pure rage radiating from her. 

"I—m s-sorr-y," Wels choked between heavy breaths, tears rolling down their cheeks. 

"It's okay, Wels—you tried to stop them, it's okay," Grian whispered. "It's okay." 

"You're okay, honey," Stress soothed. "It's alright—you'll be okay, we all will." 

Anxiety rose in Grian's chest as he felt their arm slipping, and their breaths were getting shallow. 

"Come on, we need to get them healed up _now,"_ he urged, carefully lowering them to the ground and sitting with them laying in his arms. "Stress, Mumbo, go get some potions and bandages, and _hurry." _

The two nodded, making their way down the bubble elevator to grab the necessary supplies. 

Grian sighed shakily, running his fingers through Wels' hair. "You'll be okay, Wels." 

"I'm s-orry Gr-ian—" 

"Shhh, it's okay. I promise." 

Wels exhaled sharply, leaning their head against Grian's chest. "-m so-rry." 

Grian pulled them closer, leaning his head against theirs. "It's okay. I promise." 

He glanced at their hand as they shakily lifted it up, holding their pinkie out. Grian brought his hand up and hooked their pinkies together, tears falling from his eyes as he felt their hand slipping. 

_[Welsknight was slain by Docm77 and Evil Xisuma.]_

* * *


	74. New Plan

* * *

"We're screwed, aren't we?"  
  
  


Grian sighed. "No—no, come on, we can't think that way just yet—"  
  
  
  
  


Behind them, Wels barked a laugh.  
  
  
  
  


_"Oh,_ that's _rich,"_ They said sarcastically, taking a swig from a small bottle. "Admit it—we're screwed."  
  
  
  
  


On the plus side, Wels seemed to have recovered quickly enough from the injuries sustained in their effort to stop Doc and Ex from stealing one of the two remaining flags. The downside? Well, they didn't seem to optimistic now. Not to mention the obvious happening.  
  
  


"And _who _was it who was telling us not to kiss our asses goodbye just yet?" Cleo asked snarkily.  
  


Wels snapped their fingers, a small flame igniting in the shape of a middle finger directed towards Cleo as they drank from the bottle again.

Jevin looked at Wels with an _'I'm done with your shit' _expression. "The hell are you even drinking, dude?"  
  
  
  
  


Wels held up the bottle and smirked. "Coffee and whiskey."  
  
  
  
  


Grian sighed as Stress facepalmed.  
  
  
  
  


"I wouldn't expect you to drink very much," Mumbo said, pulling a face.  
  
  
  
  


"Only a little." Wels laughed. "Except right now."  
  
  
  


"Who says we're screwed? We could still win," Iskall cut in.  
  
  
  
  


"He's right, it's not over just yet," Tango said.  
  
  
  
  
  


Wels shrugged, going back to their bottle. "It's unlikely—unless you've got some sort of plan for the final battle—if we don't lose before then."  
  
  
  
  


"Well, I don't necessarily have a plan yet, but I do have a plan for getting one of the other team's flags with Mumbo," Grian said, which grabbed the redstoner's attention.  
  
  
  
  
  


"I'm sorry—with _me__?" _  
  
  
  
  


"Yeah, with you!"  
  
  
  
  
  


"That is a disaster waiting to happen," Mumbo said, shaking his head. "I told you, we're screwed."  
  
  
  
  
  


Grian walked over and put a hand on Mumbo's shoulder. "It'll be fine, Mumbo! It can't go _that _badly."  
  
  
  
  
  


Mumbo crossed his arms. "Tell that to our trip to the Nether and when you tried to mess with guardians outside Team STAR's base."  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Off to the side, Wels broke out into laughter. "Ooohh, that was so _stupid_, Grian. Did you _actually _think that would have worked?"  
  


NPC Grian huffed. "Hey! Be nice, Elfy!"  
  
  


Jevin sighed, moving one of his wings to cover the elf, who was still laughing. "Ignore them, G." He turned to look at Wels. "You're lucky I'm not kicking your ass in front of NPC Grian."  
  
  
  


"Anyways," Grian said, exasperated. "We've still got a chance. We can make this work, come on. We've got this!"  
  
  
  
  


"No guarantee!" Wels exclaimed from behind Jevin's wing.  
  
  
  
  


The half-angel turned around and smacked Wels upside the head. "Hush, you moron."  
  
  
  


Cleo groaned. "Enough, you two."  
  
  
  
  


He sighed again, shaking his head and pushing Wels towards the door. "Go take a walk, dude."  
  
  
  
  


Wels grumbled. "Maybe I don't wanna take a walk, _dude_," they replied mockingly.

"Well, too bad. Go sit outside or something then."  
  


NPC tried to push Wels towards the door, only barely moving them. "Bad Elfy! Go!"  
  
  


And, although they still wanted to protest, Wels went outside anyway.  
  
  
  


"Sorry, Grian," Jevin said, annoyed.  
  
  
  


"It's alright," Grian said with a small wave. "So here's the plan—Mumbo and I can sneak into the other team's base and find the flag. If we don't manage to capture it in our first attempt, that's fine. As long as we can locate it—even if we have to retreat."  
  
  
  
  


Mumbo rubbed the back of his neck. "And you're sure it'll work? Especially when your choice of a partner for it is me?"  
  
  
  


Grian placed his hands on Mumbo's shoulders. "It'll be just fine. I promise."  
  
  


"Yeah! A few invisibility potions and some common sense will do you wonders!" Cleo laughed. "But seriously, you'll do just fine!"  
  


"You can do it, Mumby!" NPC cheered.

Mumbo smiled. "Alright—if you're sure it'll work, then there's no point it continuing to doubt it."  
  
  


Grian patted the redstoner's shoulders. "That's the spirit."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact actual Wels does indeed drink whiskey and would drink some during Twitch Sings streams because he said he sings better if he has some whiskey


End file.
